Hundreds of flights canceled and delayed after storm slams New York City

Heavy rains and flooding across the New York City metropolitan area on Friday delayed or canceled hundreds of flights at local airports and snarled air traffic headed toward the region. 

As of 11 p.m. Eastern time, 155 flights departing from New York's LaGuardia Airport had been canceled, while another 1709 flights were delayed, according to Flight Aware. Another 371 flights heading to LaGuardia from other destinations were also delayed or canceled, according to the tracking service.

Air travel was also disrupted at John F. Kennedy International Airport. A little more than 100 flights originating at JFK were cancelled, and 268 flights were delayed, while arrivals were in disarray.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency across New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley because of the severe storm. 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams also urged city residents to shelter in place temporarily during the downpour, which caused flash flooding and shut down parts of the subway system.

According to FlightAware, planes already in the air that are headed to LaGuardia were delayed by an average of about an hour, although delays were expected to increase. Inbound flights that had not yet taken off were facing slightly longer delays, while departures were backed up by about 50 minutes.

Flights destined for JFK that were delayed at their airports of origin were delayed by an average of three hours and 22 minutes, according to FlightAware.