Henri downgraded to tropical storm with continued rainfall warnings

New York City has been hit flash flooding amid torrential rain and lightning as Henri impacts the North East, with millions braced for flooding, toppled trees and extended power outages.

The outer bands of Henri, which had been downgraded to a tropical storm, began spreading inland across parts of New England around 9am Sunday morning.

As of its 11am storm watch update, the National Weather Service was tracking the storm as it passed over Block Island, Rhode Island, and was expected to make landfall on Rhode Island by early afternoon.    

It is anticipated to bring gusts of up to 70-mile-per-hour winds, as well as storm surges of up to five feet on parts of Long Island. 

Perhaps most seriously, regions in the Hudson Valley New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts could see rainfall of up to five inches, with a chance for the storm to slow and linger, and increasing the likelihood of serious flooding, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced during a Sunday morning press conference. 

Already more than 1,000 flights had been cancelled at airports in New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey due to the storm, with more expected throughout the day.

Janno Lieber, acting chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said that 23 percent of flights at LaGuardia, 11 percent of flights at JFK, 22 percent of flights at Newark had been cancelled, but none expected flooding. 

Strong winds had already begun lashing the region as Rhode Island and eastern Long Island saw gusts of up to 63 miles per hour and 56 miles per hour respectively, according to the National Hurricane Center. 

Despite it weakening below hurricane strength, the National Weather Service warned that the threats posed by the storm — particularly heavy rain — remained the same.

The first thunderstorms fed by moisture from Henri brought up to half a foot of rain late Saturday, and flooding began in some areas overnight. 

New York’s Central Park set an all-time record for rain in an hour, with 1.94″ falling by 11:51pm — beating the previous record of 1.76″ of rain recorded in the park on September 8, 2004.

It marked the wettest hour the city had ever seen on record. 

With the center of Henri projected to pass over or just off the eastern tip of Long Island by midday, storm warnings extended from coastal Connecticut and near the old whaling port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, to across the luxurious oceanfront estates of New York´s Hamptons, to the summer getaway of Fire Island.

‘Henri has weakened slightly and is now below hurricane strength,’ the agency tweeted Sunday morning. 

‘This does NOT CHANGE the overall threats, especially the heavy rain threat.’ 

Some 55 million people are under storm warnings ahead of the arrival of Henri, and the National Hurricane Center warned that winds that could reach 80 mph.

Eversource, who provide power to 1.2 million customers in Connecticut, warned that between 50% an