Flash Flood Watch Into Sunday As Rain Drenches Tri-State Area

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A flash flood warning was issued for parts of the Tri-State area Saturday as heavy rain battered New York City and it's surrounding suburbs.

Storms were causing flight delays at all three major airports around New York.

John F. Kennedy International was seeing departures delayed by up to 90 minutes, while inbound flights were held at their departure cities an average of three and half hours. At LaGuardia Airport, departures and arrivals were delayed for about up to one hour.

Newark Liberty Airport saw both weather and computer system problems holding up departures for up to nearly three hours. All United Airlines flights were under a ground stop due to the computer issue.

Originally issued for parts of northern New Jersey, the warning was expanded to the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, and parts of Brooklyn Sunday morning.

A severe thunderstorm warning was also in effect until Sunday, with wind gusts up to 60 miles-per-hour possible. The storms are likely to linger throughout the weekend, which could lead to additional flooding issues.

On Saturday, CBS2's John Elliott reported from Wayne, N.J., where flooding swamped cars trying to navigate submerged streets around the Willowbrook Shopping Mall.

"This is really, really brutal out here," said Elliott, citing rainfall rates and drainage as the biggest factors affecting streets throughout the area.

In Bogota, N.J., police rescued a bride and groom whose wedding day ride got brought to a halt on a flooded street.

Rainfall rates of around 2 inches an hour were forecast, with an average rainfall of 1 to 1/2 inches likely, and some areas locally seeing 2 to 4 inches possible through tonight.

At Penn Station on Saturday, flooding damaged the ceiling and forced officials to close the NJT 7th Avenue Concourse entrance.

Temperatures were expected to climb Sunday, with an additional risk for thunderstorms which weren't expected to be as widespread or severe. Any additional downpours, though, would add to the already existing flood risk.

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