Tropical storm Henri inflicts massive losses in US

Tropical storm Henri which lashed the US Northeast for two days with some areas receiving up to 10 inches of rain, has inflicted massive losses worth $8 billion to $12 billion, a media report said.

The storm was centred 50 miles east of Providence, Rhode Island, downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone upon its landing, and then headed east, Xinhua news agency quoted the USA Today report as saying.

On Tuesday, electricity was mostly restored in Rhode Island and Connecticut, while floodwaters also receded from New Jersey and New York.

Now Henri is drifting out to sea.

Central New Jersey was among the areas hardest hit, as rainwater rushed through streets like rivers.

"Part of the state got crushed," Governor Phil Murphy was quoted as saying.

"It was a huge, massive rain event. This is double digit inches in some cases of rain. Unheard of."

In Rhode Island, where Henri made landfall on Sunday afternoon, about 8,000 homes and businesses remain without power on 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.

Most of Henri's heavy rain doused New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York, while leaving some areas east of landfall relatively dry, according to AccuWeather, an experienced local and international weather forecaster.

Henri originated from a well-defined low-pressure system north-northeast of Bermuda on August 16 as a tropical depression.

Nearly a day later, the system strengthened into Tropical Storm Henri.

Henri strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane, before weakening back to a tropical storm and making a rare landfall in Westerly, Rhode Island.