Tropical Storm Henri blasted much of the Northeast with high winds and record-smashing rainfall after making landfall in the Rhode Island town of Westerly on Sunday. As of 8 p.m. EDT Sunday, the center of the storm was located near Hartford, Connecticut, with winds of up to 35 mph. Henri is expected to weaken to a tropical depression Sunday night, the National Hurricane Center said, with further weakening Monday. But the storm is still expected to produce a lot of rainfall.
Flooding is expected through Monday in parts of Long Island, New England, eastern New York and northeast Pennsylvania, the hurricane center said. President Joe Biden said at an afternoon briefing that he has approved emergency declarations for Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York, which activates recovery funds. He said he has been in contact with the governors of the states most likely to be affected. "I urged them to take advantage of the assistance FEMA can offer in advance,'' Biden said. "I'm committed to do everything we can to support their communities through the storm and afterwards.''
Henri was forecast to slow down and possibly stall near the Connecticut-New York border Sunday night, followed by an east-northeastward motion across northern Connecticut and southern Massachusetts on Monday. A slower forward speed means the storm could dump more rain on those areas. The storm pummeled the region well before landfall. Saturday was the wettest day in New York City in seven years, the National Weather Service said. The 1.94 inches of rain that fell in Central Park from 10 to 11 p.m. made it the wettest hour in the city's history.
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