Tropical Storm Henri Finally Makes Landfall

With 60-mile-an-hour winds and gusts of up to 70, Tropical Storm Henri finally hit the United States on Sunday, the Associated Press reports, making landfall in Waverly, Rhode Island, around noon.

The tropical storm, which was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane on Saturday before being downgraded once more the following morning, is expected to slow down and stall somewhere around the Connecticut-New York border, says CNN. Henri will then resume an east-northeastward path across northern Connecticut and southern Massachusetts on Monday, predicts The New York Times, before blustering through Southern Vermont, New Hampshire, and then Maine on its way back out to sea.

Though not as catastrophic as it could have been, Henri has still wrought plenty of damage along the nation’s northeastern coast. Tropical-storm-force winds are reaching as far as 125 miles from the center of the storm, CNN reports, and heavy rains and flash flooding have been reported throughout New England, New York, parts of Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Over 135,000 homes have lost power along the eastern seaboard on account of Henri, according to the Times. Speaking to the AP, utility company National Grid reported that 74,000 customers in Rhode Island were without power on Sunday and that 28,000 customers in Connecticut were dealing with outages. Airports in the affected areas remain open, though tons of flights have reportedly been canceled over the weekend. Ferry service to various tourist-friendly spots like Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts and New York’s Fire Island have been suspended for the time being, leaving people who hadn’t evacuated night stuck until Monday at the earliest. Many high-traffic bridges were also shut down this weekend over wind concerns, though some have reopened.

Heavy rain and winds are expected to continue throughout the region into Monday, prompting meteorologists and politicians (even disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who emerged from his shame hole on Sunday to make one final address to New Yorkers) to urge us all to stay home if we can.