NEW YORK (WABC) -- Storm cleanup is the focus on Sunday after severe thunderstorms battered New York City and parts of the Tri-State area with a dangerous combination of flash flooding and gusty winds.
Heavy rain on Saturday turned streets in SoHo into a river, while flood waters left drivers stranded along busy highways. In Woodside, Queens, firefighters drove through the flooded waters to rescue trapped drivers on the BQE, and in Flushing, homeowners were left cleaning out their homes after flood waters caused extensive damage.
Sunday will look much different -- with sunshine and less humidity, and better air quality overall after rain and storms cleansed the atmosphere of the noxious Canadian wildfire smoke. There will still be enough particulate matter in the air to be a problem for sensitive groups.
However, after Saturday's wicked storms, areas hard-hit by flooding will focus on cleanup, as the city's aging infrastructure once again endured another test.
Eyewitness News and ABC 7 for the latest.
Subways flooded, streets turned to rivers and rescues had to be made.
Homeowners in some areas say flooding has gotten worse in recent years with the type of rain we've been getting.
The city has even installed flood sensors in some neighborhoods to get better data in order to understand where the flooding problems are.
If there's a silver lining from Saturday's severe thunderstorms, it's that smoke from the Canadian wildfires that has engulfed the Northeast in haze is expected to mostly clear from the New York City, New Jersey area just in time for the World Cup final on Sunday.
The smoke could still cause issues for people who are sensitive to particulate matter, and they should check the air quality index particularly in the morning.
Air quality at the field is measured every 10 minutes, said David Lu, CEO and co-founder of Clarity Movement, an environmental technology company providing air quality monitoring services.
Thousands of customers across the Tri-State are still without power on Sunday after dangerous storms walloped the region on Saturday.
Here is the latest on outages across the Tri-State as of Sunday morning:
PSE&G: 38 outages, 268 customers affected
JCP&L:420 customers affected
PSEG LI: 6 outages, 90 customers affected
Con Edison:52 outages, 1,025 customers affected
ORANGE AND ROCKLAND:
O&R: 5 outages, 66 customers affected
The focus will turn to storm cleanup on Sunday for areas of the Tri-State battered by flash flooding on Saturday.
Some of the hardest hit areas included parts of New York City, like SoHo, where streets turned into rivers.
In Woodside, Queens, firefighters drove through the flooded waters to rescue trapped drivers on the BQE.
In Flushing, homeowners were left cleaning out their homes after flood waters caused extensive damage.
