Flash flood warning remains in effect in the northeast as Henri lingers

The slow-rolling storm system named Henri was expected to continue drenching the Northeast with rain Monday with a slated turn to the east from upstate New York back through New England.

The National Weather Service in Boston said torrential downpours and renewed flooding were possible, and there was a chance for brief tornados. 

The storm, now a tropical depression, was expected to dump another 1 to 3 inches of rain, as its center moves through Massachusetts.

Flood warnings were in effect Monday morning for parts of northern New Jersey and southeastern New York state, and flood watches stretched throughout southeastern Pennsylvania, parts of Vermont and New Hampshire and New York City, affecting more than 49million people.

Now, utility crews are working to restore power to the more than 63,000 people from New Jersey to Maine still left without electricity due to the storm. At its peak on Sunday, Henri had knocked out power for more than 140,000 people. 

The threat of flooding in the northeast comes as severe weather elsewhere in the country has turned deadly.

At least 22 people, including two toddlers, and the ranch hand of country singer Loretta Lynch, Wayne Spears, were killed after record-breaking rain sent floodwaters surging through Middle Tennessee on Saturday. 

More than two dozen were still missing as of Sunday evening, the Waverly City Department of Public safety reported. 

‘I would expect, given the number of fatalities, that we’re going to see mostly recovery efforts at this point rather than rescue efforts,’ Tennessee Emergency Management Director Patrick Sheehan said. 

Additionally, five people in North Carolina were killed last week in the wake of flooding rains brought by Tropical Depression Fred.

In the northeast, beach towns from the Hamptons on Long Island to Cape Cod in Massachusetts exhaled from being spared the worst of the potential damage Sunday. 

Other areas of New England awaited the storm’s return. 

The National Hurricane Center said Henri is expected to slow down further and likely stall near the Connecticut-New York state line, before moving back east through New England and eventually pushing out to the Atlantic Ocean.

By Monday morning, the system was moving east at just 1 mph.

Henri produced 3 to 6 inches of rainfall over many areas Sunday, with isolated higher totals. An additional 1 to 3 inches was forecast through Monday for parts of Long Island, New England, southeast New York, New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. 

New England officials fretted that just a few more inches of precipitation would be a back breaker following a summer of record rainfall.

‘The ground is so saturated that it can flood with just another inch of rain,’ Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont warned late Sunday.

In the central New Jersey community of Helmetta, some 200 residents fled for higher ground, taking refuge in hotels or with friends and family, as flood waters inundated their homes Sunday.

‘It came so quick – in the blink of an eye,’ said the town´s mayor, Christopher Slavicek, whose parents were spending the night after fleeing their home. ‘Now there´s clean up. So this is far from over.’

Henri came ashore as a tropical storm in Westerly, Rhode Island at around 12.15pm Sunday, the National Hurricane Center reported, with gusts of up to 70 miles per hour and sustained winds of up to 60 miles per hour. 

In the lead up and aftermath of the storm’s arrival New York City smashed its record for the most rainfall ever recorded there in a single hour.

That record saw 1.94 inches of rain fall in Central Park between 10pm and 11pm Saturday – the largest amount recorded in the Big Apple over a 60 minute period since records began. 

The 4.45 inches of total rainfall recorded on August 21 set a record for that day, with the 7.04 inches that had fallen by Sunday evening the highest two day total seen in NYC since 2011’s Hurricane Irene. 

Much of Long Island shut down amid fears of chaos, with parts of New Jersey also hard-hit. First responders rescued 80 people – including 16 children – from cars in Newark, as much of the Garden State and NYC reported flash floods.            

Sunday morning waves off the coast of Rhode Island’s Block Island were recorded as reaching up to 19 feet, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NWS offices in the area issued a flood watch for more than 35million people across the Northeastern US.  

As of 2pm the storm had slowed both in intensity and speed over southwestern Rhode Island, but continued to produce sustained winds of up to 50 miles per hour as well as flooding rainfall, according to the National Hurricane Center.

New York and New Jersey’s flash-flood warnings, which are set to remain in place until 5.45pm Monday, affect more than 11 million people, and come in addition to those already in place for Connecticut as the storm stalls inland, increasing the risk of flooding.  

As of Sunday evening, Tropical-storm-force winds could still be felt 125 miles outward from Henri, the National Weather Service reported, and bands from the storm are lingering over the region.

The storm’s movement had slowed to 9 miles per hour, and continued to move northwest through Rhode Island, the agency reported.  

As of Sunday afternoon, more than 130,000 customers have lost power in the Northeast, primarily in Rhode Island, according Poweroutage.us.

In Rhode Island alone, more than 100,000 people were expected to lose electricity, Gov. Daniel McKee reported.

In Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont said that 24,000 people were without power, mainly concentrated in southeast portion of the state, near where the storm made landfall. 

He said he anticipated more in the northwest region of Connecticut as the storm continued to move inland, and urged caution. 

The chief danger as of Sunday afternoon, he said was flooding.   

Additionally, more than 1,000 flights had been cancelled at airports in New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey due to the storm, with more expected throughout the day, according to CNN.  

According to flightaware.com, in total there have been 1,090 flight cancellations in the US so far on Sunday, and 2,609 delays.

Boston Logan and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey canceled a combined total of 211 flights – around a quarter of all flights each had scheduled for the day. 

Rick Cotton, director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, reported during a Sunday morning press conference that 23 percent of flights at LaGuardia, 11 percent of flights at JFK, 22 percent of flights at Newark had been cancelled, but none of the airports expected flooding.

In Connecticut, four nursing homes in Guilford, West Haven, Old Saybrook and West Haven were evacuated, affecting a total of 280 residents, WFSB reported. 

New York City’s subways were operating without any suspensions, Janno Lieber, acting chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority reported, but LIRR and Metro North branches in the most affected areas of eastern Long Island and Connecticut were suspended.   

Perhaps most seriously, due to their topography, areas in New York’s Hudson Valley, Connecticut and Massachusetts could see serious flooding, Cuomo reported.

‘Rain and a high level of rain for a significant period of time is highly problematic,’ he said, adding ‘I’ve seen towns float away.’ 

He said he anticipated the storm to remain a concern for about 24 hours. 

Westerly resident Collette Chisholm, a 20-year resident, said the waves were much higher than normal, but said she wasn´t concerned about her home suffering extensive damage.

‘I love storms,’ she said. ‘I think they´re exciting, as long as no one gets hurt.’

Meanwhile actor James Woods tweeted out a photo of damage from fallen trees to his lake house in Rhode Island.  

In Newport, Paul and Cherie Saunders were riding out the storm in a home that her family has owned since the late 1950s. Their basement flooded with 5 feet of water during Superstorm Sandy nine years ago.

‘This house has been through so many hurricanes and so many things have happened,’ said Cherie Saunders, 68. ‘We´re just going to wait and see what happens.”

Farther south in Branford, Connecticut, 61-year-old geologist Paul Muniz was busy securing his boat in anticipation of the storm. 

Muniz lives close to the marina and has survived previous storms, and spent $50,000 to elevate his home 9 feet off the ground.

‘I´ve lived here for 32 years, had an opportunity to move a number of times, but you know, it´s a very special place,’ Muniz said.

Rainfall of up to five inches is expected, with a chance for the storm to slow and linger, and increasing the likelihood of serious flooding, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced during a Sunday morning press conference.  

Strong winds had begun lashing the region at around 10am as Rhode Island and eastern Long Island saw gusts of up to 63 miles per hour and 56 miles per hour respectively, according to the National Hurricane Center. 

It is anticipated to bring gusts of up to 70-mile-per-hour winds, as well as storm surges of up to five feet on parts of Long Island. 

Despite it weakening below hurricane strength, the National Weather Service warned that the threats posed by the storm – particularly heavy rain – remained the same.

The first thunderstorms fed by moisture from Henri brought up to half a foot of rain late Saturday, and flooding began in some areas overnight. 

New York’s Central Park set an all-time record for rain in an hour, with 1.94′ falling by 11:51pm – beating the previous record of 1.76′ of rain recorded in the park on September 8, 2004.

It marked the wettest hour the city had ever seen on record. 

The center of Henri was initially projected to pass over the eastern tip of Long Island by midday, resulting in storm warnings extended from coastal Connecticut and near the old whaling port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, to across the luxurious oceanfront estates of New York´s Hamptons, to the summer getaway of Fire Island.

‘Henri has weakened slightly and is now below hurricane strength,’ the agency tweeted Sunday morning. 

‘This does NOT CHANGE the overall threats, especially the heavy rain threat.’ 

Some 55 million people are under storm warnings ahead of the arrival of Henri, and the National Hurricane Center warned that winds that could reach 80 mph.

Eversource, who provide power to 1.2 million customers in Connecticut, warned that between 50% and 69% their customers could lose power for between eight and 21 days, NBC reports.  

Tropical storm-intensity winds began striking the coast at around 8am.  

Several videos posted online showed drivers plowing through high water in New York City, and Newark and Hoboken, New Jersey.

President Joe Biden on Sunday morning approved states of emergency declared in areas of New York state and Connecticut. 

People in the projected path spent Saturday scrambling to stock up on groceries and gasoline. Some gas stations from Cape Cod to Long Island sold out of fuel. 

Those close to the coast boarded up windows and, in some cases, evacuated. 

Officials in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York cautioned that people could lose power for days.

Authorities advised people to secure their boats, fuel up their vehicles and stock up on canned goods.  

New York City’s ‘Homecoming’ concert canceled half way through Manilow set

New York City’s homecoming concert was dramatically cancelled half way through, and revelers were told to leave Central Park immediately and seek shelter as Tropical Storm Henri barreled down on the city.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYC officials had ignored a storm watch for the Big Apple ahead of the concert, and planned to push ahead with the event on the Great Lawn in Central Park.

The ‘We Love NYC, The Homecoming Concert’ was intended to mark the end of the Covid pandemic in the city that was the global epicenter for the virus back in April 2020.

But just after 7:40pm, as Barry Manilow was singing a medley of his hits on stage, the music was suddenly stopped as lightning strikes were reported within the city.

Manilow was part way through singing ‘I Can’t Smile Without You’ when concertgoers were told to ‘quickly and calmly proceed to the nearest exit’.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said: ‘We need everyone for brief period of time to move to some place safe because of thunder and lightening, and then we will bring the concert back.’

But as concertgoers deserted the park and the torrential rain and lightning showed no signs of easing, officials pulled the plug.   

A weather anchor for CNN revealed that city officials had previously said they would need to call off the concert if lightning struck anywhere within 10 miles of the show. 

Manilow appeared on the network in a phone interview after his performance was cut short.

‘It’s such a shame,’ Manilow said. ‘They cut us off and threw us off the stage because they were afraid of lightning. It was getting very dangerous out there.’ 

He then sang I Made It Through the Rain over the phone while Anderson Cooper waved his arms. 

On Saturday a sea of unmasked New Yorkers packed Central Park to watch a star-studded line up of performers as Tropical Storm Henri was on the horizon. 

Big name headliners including Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen and Jennifer Hudson had entertained a crowd of up to 60,000 in Central Park. 

Just before the concert was stopped, some people had posted on social media that they had been in line for three hours but still hadn’t been admitted to the park for the concert. 

Also set to perform before the concert was abruptly halted were Andrea Bocelli, Carlos Santana, Jon Batiste, Kane Brown, LL Cool J, Elvis Costello, Earth, Wind & Fire and others. 

Organized by Brooklyn-born music mogul Clive Davis, the concert was meant to celebrate New York City’s reopening after the pandemic, despite rising COVID cases nationwide.

NYC’s largest concert since the pandemic began in early 2020, the free ticketed  show was only open to attendees over the age of 12 who provide proof of vaccination, and won’t be required to wear masks.    

Source: dailymail