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New York's subway flooded during violent storm

The fast-moving storm Elsa lashed New York City and the US northeast with heavy rain and high winds on Friday, flooding streets, toppling trees and turning the subway into a water fountain.

Maximum sustained winds from the storm were 85 kilometres per hour by late afternoon as the storm moved northeast from Boston toward Maine.

The US National Hurricane Centre said Elsa was no longer considered a tropical storm but still warned of heavy rainfall and gusty winds.

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A father and son try and retrieve a car stuck in floodwaters caused by Tropical Storm Elsa in Connecticut.

Elsa had been powerful enough to bring about 90mm of rain to areas of Massachusetts and Rhode Island by the early afternoon, flooding streets and stranding cars.

West of Boston, Framingham police said Route 9 at Route 126 was closed because of high water.

Storm conditions caused morning snags on commuter rail lines across the New York City region, with slight delays on the Harlem Line north of the city and service suspended on the Long Island Rail Road’s Oyster Bay Branch because of fallen trees.

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The downpour caused a small rock slide under the main railroad track in West Haven, Connecticut, forcing trains to switch to a secondary track for a couple of hours. West Haven was also among the coastal cities dealing with significant street flooding.

“We’re waiting on the water to recede," said Joe Soto, the city's emergency management director. "The drainage system was just overwhelmed.”

The storm came a day after a deluge flooded some streets and subway stations in New York City.

Despite videos showing flooding in some stations on Thursday, “we actually weathered the storm quite well,” interim New York City Transit president Sarah Feinberg said in an email.

A truck makes its way through the flooding caused by Tropical Storm Elsa in New York.

Up to 15 centimeters of rain was possible in some areas Friday, enough to cause flash flooding.

Most of the winds stayed offshore in New England but the eastern tip of Maine expected gusts of 48 kph to 64 kph, raising concerns about some localised power outages.

Heavy rain — including a projected 12 centimeters along part of the Maine coast — was expected before the storm blew into the Bay of Fundy and Canada late Friday.

Scattered power outages were being reported along Elsa’s path on Friday.

The system was already blamed for one death in Florida on Wednesday. And Elsa also previously caused a damaging tornado in Georgia.