Two extreme weather events keep the USA in suspense. After heavy rain, the south is cleaned up. In the northeast, tropical storm “Henri” was slower than expected – but there were still problems.
Nashville – Two major storms hit hundreds of thousands of people in the United States at the weekend: After floods caused by heavy rainfall, authorities in the US state of Tennessee corrected the number of victims on Sunday to at least 21 deaths.
About 20 other people were still missing, said Sheriff Chris Davis of Humphreys County, a county about 100 kilometers west of Nashville, according to a report in the daily newspaper “The Tennessean”.
TV pictures had shown clean-up work and major damage, including cars washed away and houses washed away. The rainfall has reached record levels for the state, it said.
The tropical storm “Henri” on Sunday, on the other hand, along the northeast coast of the USA was less severe than feared, despite heavy rains. According to the NHC hurricane center, the speed had decreased significantly, but the storm still brought heavy rain and possible flooding, it said.
Henri hit the coast near the city of Westerly in the state of Rhode Island on Sunday lunchtime and reached speeds of around 95 kilometers per hour. According to the “poweroutage.us” website, around 115,000 households were without electricity, at least for a short time, in the afternoon; by late evening this number had already halved.
US President Joe Biden called on citizens to be cautious on Sunday afternoon despite the weakening winds. “We take the storm very seriously because of its size, its storm surges and the rains it creates,” he said.
Biden expressed condolences to those affected by the storm in Tennessee. He had instructed his team to pledge federal aid to the state governor. “We offer all the support you need at this terrible moment,” said Biden. The Republican Senator Bill Hagerty had then declared that he would accept this offer of help.
“Henri” was downgraded to a tropical storm on Sunday morning. The island of Long Island off the US metropolis of New York and parts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut could be affected by storm surges, it had said. Flood warnings had been issued at various levels of urgency for more than 35 million people.
On the night of Sunday, the first rain foothills from “Henri” had reached the state of New York and other US states in the northeast. In New York City, a major concert with dozens of stars had to be canceled due to a severe thunderstorm to mark the hoped-for end of the corona pandemic in Central Park. The city was spared worse damage on Sunday despite heavy rains. dpa
