CATSKILL, N.Y. (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – This week's powerful coastal storm killed at least one person in New York—a 76-year-old woman who was swept away by floodwater in the Catskills region, state police said Tuesday.
State troopers responded to a 911 call at 10:15 a.m. Monday about a white 2019 Chevy SUV submerged in water by Catskill Creek, near Cauterskill Road and Route 23B in Leed. The area is near the eastern edge of Catskill Park and several miles northwest of the Village of Catskill.
"Troopers attempted to reach the vehicle but due to heavy water flow they were unable to," state police said in a statement.
A preliminary investigation determined that the vehicle was "carried away" by floodwater and "pulled off" the roadway from the east shoulder into Catskill Creek, according to police.
Unable to reach the vehicle, state police sent their Underwater Recovery Team to the scene with an airboat and found the vehicle wedged against a thicket of trees.
The driver, MaryAnn Hyland, of Leed, was found dead in the driver's seat. Her body was removed to Ellis Hospital in Schenectady. She reportedly lived nearby.
No one else was in the vehicle at the time, police said.
According to the Albany Times Union, there was extensive flooding in the area Monday and the creek had "overspilled its western bank by more than 200 feet."
Hyland was one of five confirmed deaths from the monster storm that pummeled the East Coast Sunday into Monday. Cleanup continued Tuesday as hundreds of thousands of people remained without power.
A man was pronounced dead in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, after he was found in a submerged vehicle Monday.
An 89-year-old Hingham, Massachusetts, man was also killed Monday when high winds caused a tree to fall on a trailer, authorities said.
Another man in Fairfield, Maine, died while trying to move a storm-downed tree with a tractor, news outlets reported.
And on Sunday in South Carolina, one person died when their vehicle flooded on a road in a gated community in Mount Pleasant.
The storm caused severe flooding in New York City and its suburbs, including in Queens and North Jersey, but no storm-related deaths have been reported in the boroughs or nearby.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.