New Englanders are bracing for their first hurricane in 30 years have begun hauling boats out of the water and taking other precautions as Tropical Storm Henri barrelled toward the northeast coast.
Henri was expected to intensify into a hurricane by Saturday, the US National Hurricane Center said. Impacts could be felt in New England states by Sunday, including on Cape Cod, which is teeming with tens of thousands of summer tourists.
Up to 1000 National Guard troops were on standby to help with evacuations if needed.
Thursday marked exactly 30 years since Hurricane Bob came ashore in Rhode Island as a Category 2 storm, killing at least 17 people and leaving behind more than $1.5 billion worth of damage.
Bob, which left streets in coastal towns littered with boats blown free of their moorings, knocked out power and water to hundreds of thousands for days.
Large swaths of the Eastern seaboard were mopping up on Friday from the effects of Henri's predecessor, Tropical Depression Fred. In North Carolina, Haywood County Sheriff Greg Christopher said four people died and five individuals remained unaccounted for, down from around 20 people reported missing on Thursday.
The weather service warned of the potential for damaging winds and widespread coastal flooding from Henri, and officials in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York cautioned that people could lose power for a week or even longer.
Authorities urged people to secure their boats, fuel up their vehicles and stock up on canned goods.
The system was centred in the Atlantic Ocean late Friday about 370 kilometres south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and about 990 kilometres south of Montauk Point, New York. It had maximum sustained winds of 110km/h.
The main threats were expected to be storm surge, wind and rain, forecasters said. Storm surge between 1 to 1.5 metres was possible from Flushing, New York, to Chatham, Massachusetts; and parts of the North Shore and South Shore of Long Island.
Rainfall between 7.5 to 15 centimetres was expected Sunday through Monday over the region.
Henri was heading north on Friday night, and forecasters expected it to approach the coastlines of New York's Long Island or southern New England by Sunday.
New York hasn't had a direct hit from a major hurricane season storm since Superstorm Sandy wreaked havoc in 2012.
The Coast Guard urged boaters to stay off the water, saying in a statement: "The Coast Guard's search and rescue capabilities degrade as storm conditions strengthen. This means help could be delayed."
Australian Associated Press
