Yes, Jesus was actually talking about the start of his parousia. Contrary to Watchtower's century long, invisible presence claim, Jesus' parousia starts with his final coming - not with a century of inivisible heavenly rule.
Note also, that Jesus was actually using the flood of Noah's day to make the point about his parousia coming at an unknown time. Watchtower inaccurately translates Matthew 24:39 as "and they took no note until the flood came ...". But the greek text doesn't say this. It actually says "and they did not know until the flood came...". Jesus was really saying the flood of Noah's day came at an unexpected time (because they too did not know what day it was coming) so they went about normal activities of life - eating, drinking, marrying, etc - up until the day of the flood. Notice how Jesus continues this point of being caught doing normal day-to-day activities in verse 40 where he says that his presence will catch some grinding at the mill and working in the field. So the whole point of Jesus' comparison with the days of Noah was to make the point about the sudden, unexpected nature of the timing of his presence, such that people will continue to be doing normal life activities up until the day he comes. When you logically follow the writers' flow of thought from verse 36 to verse 42 with an accurate translation and an open mind free of Watchtower bias, this becomes obvious.
The Watchtower is playing a game of linguistic technicalities with the word parousia trying to say it's different from Jesus final coming at armageddon. But really, Jesus final coming is what marks the start of his parousia. This is why Jesus uses the two terms interchangeably at Matthew 24:36-42. His presence starts with his coming so the technical difference in meaning between parousia and coming is irrelevant in the eschatological context that Jesus is speaking. Besides it's basic common sense that a person has to first come in order to be present. But Watchtower foolishes teahes the illogical concept that Jesus is present before he comes. I think they're confusing Jesus presence and coming with another kind of presence and coming, if you know what I mean. LOL.
There are other scriptures throughout the NT that imply that the presence starts with christ's final coming. 2 Peter 3:9 is one. Peter responds to the ridiculers asking "where is the promised presence" by saying that God is not slow respecting his promise (the promised presence) but is patient because he does not desire any to be destroyed, but desires all to attain to repentance. Do you see the implication of this verse? It implies that when the presence starts there would not be any more time left for any to repent. Therefore the presence starts with Jesus coming to destroy the wicked. But according to JWs 2 Peter 3:9 has to be a lie, because people have had a whole century of opportunity to repent after the presence started in 1914. See how screwed up JW eschatology really is? Note also that according to JW teaching, the ridiculers mentioned in 2 Peter 3:4 are actually living during the presence while asking where is the presence - because they're living in the last days which JWs say, started with the start of christ's presence. But Peter - and most JWs - seem to be completely oblivious to this irony.
Another scripture that implies a climactic start to christ's presence is James 5:7 - pay attention to the use of the word until in that verse. It clearly implies that christians no longer need to exercise patience once christ's presence starts as they will at that time be taken out of this trialsome world and receive their promised heavenly reward. But according to JW teaching, a christian who was alive at the start of christ's presence would have to continue exercising patience his whole life. This essentially invalidates the encouragement of James 5:7
