There were ground delays at New York City airports and tornado warnings were issued for parts of New Jersey on Friday morning as the remnants of Storm Debby approached New York City.
LaGuardia Airport in Queens issued a ground stop due to thunderstorms at 7:15 a.m., but by 8:21 a.m. it was downgraded to a ground delay. PIX11 said.
The media noted that travelers can still expect delays of more than an hour.
According to the FAA, departing flights at Newark Liberty International Airport were delayed by about 45 minutes, and traffic jams at John F. Kennedy International Airport lasted about 30 minutes.
Tornado watches were issued for 17 New Jersey counties due to the risk of severe thunderstorms from Debby, which was officially downgraded to a subtropical storm by the National Hurricane Center.
A high wind watch was also issued across the state, with wind gusts of up to 50 mph expected.
Tornado watches were also issued for parts of New York state northwest of New York City and eastern Pennsylvania. ABC News’ Ginger Zee reports..
There was no tornado watch in New York City, but a high wind watch was issued for the area by the National Weather Service.
Flood watches were also issued for much of upstate New York and central Pennsylvania.
The severe storm was expected to reach the tri-state area late Friday, bringing rain, strong winds and flooding.
Many areas could get 3 to 7 inches of rain, causing “locally catastrophic flooding,” the National Weather Service warned.
As of early Friday, Debby was battering parts of the coastal Carolinas before moving north through Virginia and Maryland with winds of up to 30 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Debby made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend on Monday as a Category 1 hurricane.
The storm dumped more than 20 inches of rain on the southwestern part of the state and left more than 300,000 customers without power.
Debby made a second landfall in South Carolina on Thursday as a tropical storm.
Heavy rain is expected to fall along parts of the East Coast through Sunday, with the heaviest rainfall expected along the Interstate 95 corridor from the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast.
As of Friday morning, at least seven people were known to have died as a result of the storm.
