Flash Floods Strand Cars in Queens

By ANDY NEWMAN

Torrential rains were flooding highways and stranding cars in Queens on Wednesday afternoon, the Fire Department said.

Three people, one of them a child, were reported to be stuck in a car on the Van Wyck Expressway near Main Street in Briarwood as of about 12:30 p.m., fire officials said. Other trouble spots, fire officials said, included Francis Lewis Boulevard and the Long Island Expressway in Bayside, where several cars were stuck; and the expressway and Utopia Parkway in Fresh Meadows.

On Grand Central Parkway, eastbound lanes near Jewel Avenue in Forest Hills were closed because there were many cars stuck in the water, the scanner-monitoring service Breaking News Network reported; and WCBS-AM (880) reported that the Long Island Expressway was closed in both directions at Francis Lewis Boulevard and that the Van Wyck was closed southbound at Hillside Avenue.

The National Weather Service estimated that more tha n 2 inches of rain had fallen in central Queens, around Kew Gardens and Jamaica, between about 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. A flash flood warning is in effect for Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island until 2 p.m.

The Weather Service encourages drivers who encounter flooded roads to “make the smart choice: turn around, don't drown.”