Yahoo TV

Ida struck the Gulf coast Sunday as a Category 4 storm and marched northward through the eastern United States, culminating in high-intensity rains and fast-rising floods in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut and New York on Wednesday night (September 1).

Thousands of people were stranded in their homes or cars and rescued by emergency responders or neighbors in rafts and life boats. Many are now coping with water-logged basements, power outages and damaged roofs as officials assess the damage.

On Friday New York Governor Kathy Hochul said that people should expect extreme weather to occur with increasing frequency - a phenomenon scientists have for years been attributing to global warming and climate change - and that government needed take more aggressive action to save lives.

"Some people have called this a 500-year event. I don't buy it," said Hochul. "No longer will we say, that won't happen again in our lifetime. This could literally happen next week."

Officials have confirmed 16 fatalities in New York, 25 in New Jersey, four in Pennsylvania and the death of a state trooper in Connecticut.