Thunderstorms in New York and rain in the states in the northeast: the first offshoots of Hurricane “Henri” hit the coast on Saturday evening. The climax should be reached on Sunday lunchtime.
New York – On Sunday night (local time) in the USA, the first rains from Hurricane “Henri” reached New York and other states in the northeast.
In the metropolis of New York City, due to a severe thunderstorm, a major concert with dozens of stars had to be canceled for the hoped-for end of the corona pandemic in Central Park. The meteorologists at the US hurricane center NHC expected that “Henri” would hit the coast on Sunday noon (local time), but would more likely hit Long Island in the east of the metropolis and the states in the northeast such as Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts in particular.
Fears of power outages and storm surges
In view of the approaching hurricane, US President Joe Biden promised support to the governors of seven threatened states on the northeast coast of the country on Saturday. Possible consequences of the storm are widespread power outages, storm surges on the coast and inland floods. Authorities in some coastal Connecticut cities had called on some residents to evacuate. The NHC expected that “Henri” would quickly lose speed after landing on land.
Around six million people lived in areas that were subject to a hurricane warning, according to CNN. In the northeast there has not been a storm of this strength since 1991, and on Long Island not even since 1986. Flood warnings were issued for more than 35 million people.
New York declares a state of emergency
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for parts of the US state on Saturday. These included the city of New York, Long Island and a few other areas. In the USA, a state of emergency is often imposed out of caution, because this means that responsibilities are shifted from the federal government to regional authorities. Cuomo expected only heavy rainfall and some light flooding for the city of New York. Mayor Bill de Blasio called for unnecessary drives and trips to be avoided on Sundays. The US weather service had upgraded the tropical storm “Henri” to a hurricane on Saturday. dpa
