I wonder why the WP bothered to call it “New England floods” when the article only talks about one state in New England. New York is not part of New England, but half the article focuses on that state.
That’s very much a regional view. Out west, no one bats an eye if you end New England at the Mason-Dixon line.
This sort of thing happens all the time. An Arizonan will never place Texas in the Southwest, but Virginians in my experience are a coin toss on South or Southwest. And then here we just split the difference and do SXSW.