The lights were mostly back on Tuesday in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and floodwaters had receded from New Jersey and New York. Henri was drifting out to sea.
The storm, downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, was centered 50 miles east of Providence, Rhode Island, and headed east. Henri’s winds eased to 25 mph, and no more flood watches were in effect.
“Little change in strength is forecast this morning, with the system dissipating by later this afternoon,” said Marc Chenard, a National Weather Service senior forecaster.
The storm had hovered over the Northeast, slamming some areas with up to 10 inches of rain. It left behind a wide swath of mud, debris and devastation. The total damage and economic loss from Henri was probably $8 billion to $12 billion, according to AccuWeather founder and CEO Joel Myers.
Central New Jersey was among the areas hardest hit, as rainwater rushed through streets like rivers.
“Part of the state got crushed,” Gov. Phil Murphy said. “It was a huge, massive rain event. This is double digit inches in some cases of rain. Unheard of.”
Residents of Rossmoor, a retirement community in Monroe Township, returned to soaked homes and ruined possessions. Roseann and John Kiernan said they’d probably have to replace their appliances, tear up walls and carpets and junk their car after their house was swamped with almost nearly 2 feet of water Sunday.
“This is what we were left with: nothing, nothing,” lamented Roseann Kiernan. “They told us that everything has to go.”
In nearby Jamesburg, Luke Becker said his Four Boys ice cream stand was overrun by 4 feet of water. Three inches of mud were left behind.
“We were initially hoping to be back open by Labor Day, but now it looks like we’ve got to go through all the plumbing and rip out a ton of electrical,” he said. “Right now there’s really no timetable.”
In Rhode Island, where Henri made landfall Sunday afternoon, about 8,000 homes and businesses remained without power Tuesday. Almost 100,000 were dark at the peak of the storm. The utility National Grid brought in workers from Massachusetts to help restore power and said all customers should have power by Wednesday.
Henri slammed ashore with 60 mph winds and gusts approaching 70 mph. The majority of the issues stemmed from tree limbs falling on power lines, National Grid spokesman Ted Kresse said.
Gov. Dan McKee commended the work of the utility’s repair crews and staff and gave credit to executives for responding to requests from the state during and after the storm. McKee reserved judgment on the bigger-picture preparation efforts of the company.
“So inside the storm, I think, they’re doing the absolute best they can, but the question is are we getting the most that we need, the best that we can have in a long-term strategy?” McKee said at a news conference Monday.
National Grid said in a statement that over the past five years, it spent about $500 million on Rhode Island’s electric infrastructure.
“We believe these investments are paying off, as National Grid frequently marks among the top quartiles in key reliability metrics set within the (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) benchmarking data compared to other utilities,” the company said.
Most of Henri’s heavy rain fell on the western side of the system, dousing New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York while leaving some areas east of landfall, such as Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in Massachusetts, relatively dry, AccuWeather said.
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