TROPICAL Storm Henri made landfall at 12.15pm yesterday near Westerly, Rhode Island, with winds of 97km per hour, the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said, as thousands of people already without electricity braced for the full effect of the storm.

Tropical storm warnings were extended from coastal Connecticut and Rhode Island to the luxurious oceanfront estates of the Hamptons on the eastern end of Long Island, New York, with over 100,000 power outages reported for customers up the northern East Coast as of 5pm, most in Rhode Island, Xinhua reported.

Meanwhile in New Jersey, at least 86 people were rescued from flooded vehicles related to the tropical storm yesterday afternoon, according to the Newark Department of Public Safety.

It appeared that most major airports in the path of the storm remained open yesterday, but hundreds of flights had been cancelled. FlightAware, a flight-tracking website, reported that more than 1,000 flights in or out of or within the United States had been cancelled.

Although the storm had been downgraded from a hurricane, many parts of New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts were experiencing heavy rain, which could cause major flooding and wind gusts of up to 120km per hour, said NBC yesterday.

An advisory from the NHC at 5pm said the storm had weakened slightly while moving across Connecticut. Henri was expected to stall over the New York-Connecticut border at night before heading for southern Massachusetts today. Heavy rain and flooding are expected across the region overnight. – Bernama, August 23, 2021.