United States: New England braces for first hurricane in 30 years

The New English began to remove boats from the water and take other precautions on Friday to deal with its first direct hurricane in 30 years, Tropical Storm Henri towards the northeastern United States.

It is expected that Henri reinforces the force of the hurricane by Saturdaysaid the National Hurricane Center. The phenomenon will strike the states which form New England, including Cape Cod, which is teeming with thousands of summer tourists.

The Governor of Massachusetts, Charlie Baker asked walkers to leave Cape Cod on Friday before Henri arrived, and those who had planned to spend vacations there to postpone their projects.

“We don’t want people to get stuck in traffic on Cape Cod bridges. when the storm deploys all its force on Sunday, “he added.

“This storm is extremely disturbing “, said Michael Finkelstein, police chief and director of emergency management in East Lyme, Connecticut. “It had been a long time since we had had such a situation and there is no doubt that we and the rest of New England could be in real trouble by the direct impact of a hurricane ”.

Finkelstein noted that they are more concerned with the lower districts of the city, which could become inaccessible due to flooding and storm surges.

Thursday was exactly filled 30 years since Hurricane Bob made landfall in Rhode Island as a Category 2 hurricane, killing at least 17 people and causing damage of over $ 1,500 million. The streets of coastal towns were filled with boats that were freed from their moorings, and hundreds of thousands of people were without electricity and water for several days.

Mexico, also on alert for the next re-entry of Hurricane Grace

The government of Mexico launched on Friday a call for the population to be “very aware” of the next return of Hurricane Grace, that the day before he left the Yucatan peninsula and that he will arrive in Veracruz in the next few hours.

“We ask the entire population to be very vigilant. Follow the recommendations of Civil Protection and I backed up in their homes”, Declared the national coordinator of civil protection, Laura Velázquez, during the morning press conference of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Grace left the Yucatan Peninsula around 7:00 p.m. Thursday (00:00 GMT Friday), where it degraded into a tropical storm and caused minor damage, but in the last few hours she stepped up to a Category 1 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico and headed for the coast of Veracruz.

“It is important that we are very vigilant. There will be heavy rains in Veracruz and Puebla. Likewise, the presence of rains in Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, Tlaxcala and Chiapas for todayVelázquez warned.

He further predicted that the On Saturday, there will be “heavy rains in the center of the country, especially in Mexico City”.

Grace entered the Yucatan Peninsula at 4:45 a.m. Thursday (9:45 a.m. GMT), where she assigned supplies from the states of Quintana Roo, Yucatan and Campeche, but neither injured nor died.

“Inform, and this is very important, that there has been White balance, no deaths or injuries during Hurricane Grace in Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucatán», Declared the coordinator of civil protection.

According to the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), 697,000 users have experienced power outages in those three states, of which 63% have been restored and the rest are expected to return to normal this Friday.

Before the arrival of the hurricane in the Yucatan peninsula through the tourist and Caribbean town of Tulum, the Mexican government has deployed 2,300 troops and 1,100 sailors to the region.

This year they have been trained to date in Mexico eight tropical storms in the Atlantic and among them only Elsa and Grace have been hurricanes so far.

The National Water Commission (Conagua) predicted last May the formation of between 14 and 20 named systems in the Pacific Ocean for this season, while for the Atlantic it forecast 15 to 19 meteorological phenomena.

(With information from AP and EFE)

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