MONROE TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — Residents across the waterlogged Northeast began clearing mud and tearing out soggy carpets Monday after deluges dropped by Tropical Storm Henri, whose remnants threatened further flooding in New England as the system made a slow trek back to the sea.
Rains from the storm, which spared coastal areas of New York and New England major damage when its center made landfall Sunday in Rhode Island, deluged areas at times from New Hampshire to New York City and down to New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The system, now a tropical depression, was moving eastward Monday at a leisurely 6 mph but was expected to accelerate later in the day.
Downpours, flooding and even tornadoes were possible Monday in New England, where officials fretted that just a few more inches would be a back-breaker following a summer of record rainfall.
With rain still falling off and on, but with the sun finally peeking through at times, residents in parts of the Northeast turned to cleaning up.
The smell of sewage filled the air in Rossmoor, a senior community in New Jersey, as residents returned to soaked homes and possessions. The are remained under a flood warning until midnight.
Roseann and John Kiernan said they’d have to likely toss their appliances, tear up walls and carpets and replace their ruined car after their house filled with nearly 2 feet of water on Sunday, leaving them without power.
“It’s a mess,” John Kiernan said.
Dolores Hebert recalled being ferried to safety by boat with her dog and cat as 8 inches of rain fell and water surged through the streets.
“I was sleeping and when I woke up, it was up to my knees,” said Hebert, 76, as she stood by a front door bearing 18-inch-high watermarks.
A few miles away in Jamesburg, the whirring of portable pumps split the air on the main street, which suffered extensive flooding.
Luke Becker, co-owner of the Four Boys ice cream stand, said nearly 4 feet of water rushed into the shop, dislodging a tall cooler and leaving 3 inches of mud 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 because we don’t know how much of that was affected,” he said. “Right now there’s really no timetable.”
In Manchester, Connecticut, 40 miles from the coast, Annette Landry hoped Monday’s rains wouldn’t repeat the flooding that left three units in her condo complex under a few inches of water Sunday.
Firefighters said they helped evacuate 18 homes and made several rescues after Henri dumped about 5 inches of rain.
“It was a tragedy that this happened, because the people who live here are people who can ill afford to live anywhere else,” said Landry, a 72-year-old retiree whose second-floor home was spared.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont on Monday toured damage in the community of Canterbury and said he still worried about further flooding, particularly in urban areas like Hartford and New Haven where pavement creates poor water runoff.
“The ground is so saturated with water that every inch of rain creates immediate floods and flash floods,” he said.
Parts of New York’s Hudson Valley, north of New York City, had gotten 4 inches of rain by Monday morning and had no power and flooded roads. An additional couple of inches of rain was possible, and flood watches remained in effect.
President Joe Biden has declared disasters in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont and Connecticut, opening the purse strings for federal recovery aid to those states.
No deaths have been attributed to the storm.
