Tropical Storm Henri Batters The Northeast With Heavy Rains, High Winds

Tropical Storm Henri made landfall on Sunday (August 22) afternoon near Westerly, Rhode Island, after dumping flooding rains across the Northeast. Henri had sustained winds of 60 mph when it made landfall.

Over 55 million people across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island were under tropical storm, and hurricane warnings as Henri moved up the east coast. Some areas along the coast are also under storm surge warnings, with surges between two and six feet predicted.

Residents in central New Jersey bore the early brunt of the storm as a band of heavy rain dumped nearly nine inches of rain in Middlesex County. Rescuers were going door-to-door and helped evacuate over 150 people who were stranded by the floods.

"We have swift-water boats coming in, we have high vehicles coming in, and they're literally going door-to-door getting the people out," Eyewitness News Assignment Desk Editor Mark Crudele said.

A state of emergency was declared in New York, and Connecticut and several train lines were suspended in New York City as Henri moved north. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo deployed 500 National Guard troops to help the roughly 1,000 state police personnel in areas impacted by the storm.

Nearly 100,000 people are without power across the region, including 71,000 outages reported in Rhode Island and 20,000 in Connecticut. Officials in Connecticut said that the power outages could last for several days as crews work around the clock to restore the power.