Storm Henri news – Biden gives update on response after system makes landfall over Rhode Island
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Your support makes all the difference.Tropical storm Henri - downgraded from a hurricane this morning - has made landfall near the town of Westerly, Rhode Island, on the border with Connecticut.
Coastal residents in New England have boarded up their windows, stocked up on supplies, and prepared their generators, local media report. The storm is expected to track to the northwest as it moves inland with more heavy rain and flooding expected.
New York City remains under a state of emergency, announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio last night, as residents were lashed with torrential downpours that broke records.
President Joe Biden provided an update on the federal government’s response on Sunday afternoon, having already approved declarations of emergency for New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
More than 50 million people were put on weather alerts by authorities, according to CNN — more than 12 million under a storm surge warning, 5 million under a hurricane warning, and 37 million under a tropical storm warning.
Update: Power outages spread across New England
Rhode Island: 80,000 without power
Connecticut: 25,500 without power
Massachusetts: 6,800 without power
Maine: 5,500 without power
Massachusetts residents picking up homes and move them inland
ABC affiliate WCVB reports:
As Tropical Storm Henri makes landfall along the coast of New England, some Massachusetts residents are picking up their ocean-facing homes and moving them inland.
Along East Beach Road in Westport, Massachusetts, homes are placed on trailers, providing owners with ocean-front backyards.
On Sunday morning, as Henri was rapidly approaching the coast of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, some residents were picking up their homes to move to a safer location inland.
Video captured by WCVB showed one farmer using his tractor to tow one of the homes to store inland at a local farm.
Many homes in the area have been handed down from generation to generation, so most are trying to avoid any damage or property loss.
Update: Power outages grow in number in New England
Rhode Island: 83,000 without power
Connecticut: 32,000 without power
Massachusetts: 12,850 without power
New Jersey: 5,300 without power
New York: 2,800 without power
Local celebrity’s mansion is unharmed
Taylor Swift’s mansion in the beachfront village of Watch Hill, neighbouring Westerly, where the storm made landfall, is “A-OK”.
New York City issued yet another flash flood warning
The order covers the five boroughs of New York City as well as the northwest suburbs and a large part of northern New Jersey.
Tropical Storm Henri: Where things stand now
Tropical Storm Henri hit the coast of Rhode Island at 12.15pm on Sunday, packing high winds that knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes, and bands of rain that led to flash flooding from New Jersey to Massachusetts.
The storm was downgraded from a category one hurricane to a tropical storm earlier in the day, and made landfall near the town of Westerly on Sunday afternoon with sustained winds of about 60 mph and gusts of up to 70 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Henri has since weakened and now has sustained winds of 50 mph as it moves inland, heading northwest towards Hartford, Connecticut.
There were few early reports of major damage due to wind or surf, but officials warned of the danger of flash flooding in inland areas over the next few days.
Millions in southern New England and New York braced for the possibility of toppled trees, extended power outages, and flooding from the storm system which threatens to linger over the region well into Monday.
New York City has again been placed on a flash flood alert after 24 hours that saw rainfall records broken and streets, highways, and subway stations inundated.
Between 10pm and 11pm on Saturday night, 1.94 inches of rain fell in Central Park, smashing the hourly record. Data has been collected at the weather station in the park since 1869.
New York City Councilmember Mark Levine tweeted that the park also received a month’s worth of rain in a single night, totalling 4.45 inches.
“The age of extreme weather is here,” he wrote. It has continued to rain for most of Sunday.
Biden to update on Henri response in 4pm briefing
President Joe Biden will provide an update on the federal government’s response to Tropical Storm Henri during a White House press briefing at 4pm.
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