Record rains drench Northeast as Tropical Storm Henri plows inland

Henri brings rain and flooding to Northeast

Fox Weather MMJ Will Nunley details Henri and how it brought record rains that caused flooding throughout the Northeast.

NEW YORK -- Rain continued to fall across the soggy Northeast Monday morning as residents surveyed the damage left behind by Tropical Storm Henri.

The storm, since downgraded to a Tropical Depression Monday morning, made landfall Sunday morning near Westerly, Rhode Island with gusts to 70 mph, flooding roads, knocking out power, and leaving some people stranded in their cars.

While the storm focused its wind impacts near its center in Rhode Island, relentless heavy rains fell to the storm's west. New York City and parts of New Jersey reported as much as 6-8 inches of rain during a 38-hour period of Henri's wrath. Rising flood waters in Helmetta, N.J. had 200 residents running to safety.

"It came so quick — in the blink of an eye," Mayor Christopher Slavicek, whose parents were spending the night after fleeing their home, told the Associated Press. "Now there’s cleanup. So this is far from over."

Over in Newark, rescue crews had to pull drivers and passengers out of cars as they got trapped in high waters, reported FOX 4 New York. Many drivers were caught in underpasses, which collected large amounts of water as several inches of rain fell Saturday night into Sunday. Emergency crews were seen wading up to cars with rafts to ferry people to safer areas.

Newark police and firefighters rescued 86 people in 11 incidents related to the storm, according to Public Safety Director Brian O’Hara.

Over 140,000 people lost power during the peak of the storm, according to the AP. The Hudson Valley suffered several power outages and flooded roads from Henri's rainfall.

Power outages were also widespread across Connecticut, where nearly 95% of Eversource customers lost electricity on Sunday, the AP reported. Over 8,000 in Connecticut remained in the dark Monday, while 42,000 in Rhode Island were also still without power, according to PowerOutage.us. 

That left residents weary of facing the return of summer heat on Tuesday without air conditioning.

"It’s supposed to get nasty hot and humid again on Tuesday," Linda Orlomoski told the Associated Press. "If we still have no power by then, that will be miserable."

President Joe Biden has approved emergency declarations for Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York to allow federal aid to quickly move into the region.

"Which activates funds and means we can get in there and help as soon as this extreme weather is moved through," Biden told reporters Sunday.

Nearly 2" of rain in an hour in NYC

Henri brought well more than a month's worth of rain to the Big Apple over the weekend. Central Park reported 7.04 inches between Saturday evening and Monday morning -- nearly 15% of the city's average annual rainfall and well above the August average of 4.56 inches. The 4.45 inches that fell on Saturday in Central Park made it the wettest Aug. 21 on record there.

But a sizable chunk of that rain -- 1.94 inches! -- fell in one hour Saturday night, making it one of the wettest hours on record in the city. 

It may only be bested by two measurements of over 2 inches in the early 20th Century: 

Brooklyn reported 8.03 inches while Midtown Manhattan had 6.46 inches and Battery Park checked in with 6.15 inches.

New York deployed 500 National Guard members and 1,000 state police personnel to deal with the aftermath of the storm.

More rain falling Monday

Additional rounds of heavy rain were expected Monday in the battered region as the remnants of Henri slowed to a crawl over the inland Northeast. Portions of Long Island, New England, southeastern New York, New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania could see an additional 1-3 inches of rain with locally higher amounts, the National Weather Service warned. 

Flood Watches remained in effect for much of the area with potential for areas of flash flooding, river flooding, and flooding along urban and small streams.

Henri is expected to eventually drift offshore Monday night allowing for drier -- and warmer -- weather to return to New England for Tuesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.