Wild scenes of flooding unfolded throughout New York City Friday morning as an intense rainstorm barreled through the tri-state area, turning local roads into rivers during the morning rush hour and stranding motorists.

Videos showed cars plowing through knee-deep water in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, with a whirlpool seen swirling in the middle of the waterlogged road.

Cellphone footage taken aboard a city bus at 18th Avenue and 60th Street in Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst neighborhood showed floodwaters gushing into the vehicle filled with passengers, among them children, who tried to stay dry by lifting their feet off the floor.

The Big Apple’s major roads fared no better, as the Brooklyn- Queens Expressway, the Belt Parkway, and Prospect Park Expressway all turned into rivers teeming with partially flooded cars trapped in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

18 A bus plows through a flooded road in Brooklyn during Friday morning’s storm. Paul Martinka

18 FDNY firefighters responded to a 14th Street and 3rd Avenue manhole fire, possibly the result of heavy rains. William Farrington

18 Some motorists found themselves trapped by floodwaters inside their vehicles and had to be rescued. Paul Martinka

18 The MTA has suspended service on 17 lines in Brooklyn. Paul Martinka

18 First responders wade through floodwaters at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge, on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023. AP

18 Rain floods streets in Ditmas Park in Brooklyn. Vanessa Velez-Panzella via Storyful

18 Footage showed intense flooding at the Smith and 9th Streets station in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Seth Chinnis via Storyful

18 A flooded Brooklyn neighborhood. Jonathan Gardner via Storyful

18 A car hits high floodwater in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Eric Butler via Storyful

18 An intense rainstorm is barreling through the tri-state area. NOAA

18 Commuters are left stranded at the Church Avenue F, G subway station as many lines remain shut down throughout the city. Paul Martinka

18 People wade through flooded streets. Liz Herron-Sweet via Storyful

On the FDR Drive on Manhattan’s east side, traffic came to a standstill, with some drivers opting to ditch their swamped cars.

Priscilla Fontallio said she had been stranded in her car, which was on a stretch of the highway that wasn’t flooded but wasn’t moving, for three hours. 

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“Never seen anything like this in my life,” she said.

Brooklyn and Queens have been hit the hardest by the storm, said meteorologist Brian Mastro, with Fox Weather. 

18 Residents escape rising floodwaters in the New York City suburb of Mamaroneck in Westchester County. REUTERS

18 An emergency alert warned New Yorkers: “Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order.” Matthew McDermott

18 Subway service was stopped amid heavy rain on September 29, 2023. Getty Images

18 Residents walk through floodwaters during a heavy rainstorm in Westchester County on Sept. 29, 2023. REUTERS

By 1 p.m., the highest rain total of just under 7 inches was recorded at Brooklyn’s historic Green-Wood Cemetery, according to Mastro. 

The storm also drenched parts of the city’s subway system, turning a staircase at the Grand Army Plaza station on the 2/3 line in Brooklyn into a waterfall, as seen in a bystander’s dramatic cellphone video.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority begged commuters to stay home if possible.

18 A sanitation truck drives along the flooded FDR on Friday morning. William Farrington

Virtually every subway line was at least partly suspended, rerouted, or operating with major delays — and two of the Metro-North Railroad’s three lines were not running.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency for New York City, the Hudson Valley, and Long Island in response to the flooding.

18 Many vehicles sit abandoned on the southbound FDR. WF

“This is a dangerous, life-threatening storm,” Hochul said in an interview with TV station NY1. “Count on this for the next 20 hours.”

Separately, Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency for the five boroughs and urged New Yorkers to stay home, or shelter in place at work or in school.“This is a dangerous condition and it’s not over,” he said. 

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning, citing a “dangerous and life-threatening situation” caused by the storm, which is expected to bring up to 10 inches of rain in some parts of the region.

“Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order,” an emergency alert sent out late Friday morning warned.

Parts of New York City have already seen 5 inches of rain by 11 a.m.

A flood watch is in effect through 6 a.m. Saturday for the entire tri-state, with rainfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour expected at times.