Aug 23, 2021: Hurricane Henry hit the coast of Rhode Island on Sunday, with strong winds cutting off power to tens of thousands of homes and causing flooding.

Hurricane Henry hit the coast of Rhode Island on Sunday, with strong winds cutting off power to tens of thousands of homes, causing flooding from New Jersey to Massachusetts.

The storm turned from a hurricane into a tropical storm, and on Sunday afternoon it landed near Westerly, Rhode Island, with strong winds of about 60 mph and winds of 70 mph. Henry has been weak since then and now it is blowing at 50 miles per hour as it moves inland.

It hurled rain westward far before its arrival, flooding areas as far southwest as New Jersey before pelting northeast Pennsylvania, even as it took on tropical depression status.

Over 140,000 homes lost power, and deluges of rain closed bridges, swamped roads and left some people stranded in their vehicles.

Initial reports of major damage due to wind or surf were received, but authorities warned of the danger of spot flooding in the interior areas in the next few days.

Millions of people in southern New England and New York are prepared for the possibility of falling trees, increased power outages and flooding from the hurricane system, threatening to stay in the region until Monday.

The National Grid said 74,000 consumers were without electricity in Rhode Island and more than 28,000 in Connecticut.

Scientists say that as climate change causes oceans to warm up, cyclones are becoming more powerful and carrying more water, posing a growing threat to the world’s coastal communities.

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.

Henri could produce 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 centimeters) of rainfall over portions of Long Island, New England, southeast New York, New Jersey, and northeast Pennsylvania through Monday, the agency projects. Parts of northern New Jersey into southern New York could see up to a foot of rain, leading to considerable flash flooding, it said.

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.

Some communities in central New Jersey were inundated with as much as 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain by midday Sunday. In Jamesburg, television video footage showed flooded downtown streets and cars almost completely submerged. In Newark, Public Safety Director Brian O’Hara said police and firefighters rescued 86 people in 11 incidents related to the storm.

In Connecticut, about 250 residents from four nursing homes on the shoreline had to be relocated to other facilities. Several major bridges in Rhode Island were briefly shuttered Sunday, and some coastal roads were nearly impassable.

The approaching then-hurricane had prompted New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to announce a state of emergency and the deployment of 500 National Guard soldiers in anticipation of response efforts.

If Henri is upgraded again then it would be the first hurricane to hit New England in 30 years.

Stay tuned to BaaghiTV for latest news and Updates!