Henri makes landfall in northeastern United States as tropical storm

Matt Prue, from Stonington, Conn., walks out into the Atlantic Ocean to body surf the waves from Tropical Storm Henri as it approaches Westerly, R.I., Sunday, Aug. 22, 2021. - Copyright AP Photo/Stew Milne

By AP

Published on 22/08/2021 - 19:44•Updated 23/08/2021 - 09:36

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Tropical Storm Henri made landfall in Rhode Island. Just prior, it was packing maximum sustained winds of nearly 100 kilometres per hour .

Tropical Storm Henri made landfall in the northeastern US state of Rhode Island.

The National Hurricane Centre says Henri came ashore in the coastal town of Westerly around 12:30 p.m. local time. It had earlier passed over Block Island, a small but popular tourist island 21 kilometres offshore in Block Island Sound.

Henri was packing maximum sustained winds of 96 kilometres per hour, and it was producing 5.8-metre waves in some places just before making landfall.

Rhode Island shut down major bridges in the state due to high winds.

All roads to the beach community of Misquamicut have been closed by authorities because of wind-driven flooding. Misquamicut is a small cluster of beach hotels and vacation cottages and was heavily damaged by storm surge during Superstorm Sandy.

The state is stitched together by bridges so shutting them down may mean people are trapped where they are until the storm passes.

National Grid is reporting 74,000 customers without power in Rhode Island and EverSource is reporting nearly 20,000 customers out in Connecticut.

Millions of people on New York’s Long Island and in southern New England braced for flooding, toppled trees and extended power outages.

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