Northeast Gets Inch of Rain Per Hour; Winds, Thunderstorms Buffet Kansas

Downpours drenched the Northeast with as much as an inch of rain an hour Saturday, forcing the evacuation of 400 people from swamped New Hampshire campgrounds, as storms raked Kansas with 70-m.p.h. gusts.

Flood watches were posted in parts of New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine as heavy rain drove small rivers and streams over their banks, the National Weather Service said. The driving rains caused street flooding and ponding in poor-drainage areas.

Forecasters in Vermont said mudslides were possible as the ground turned spongy across much of the state.

More than four inches of rain inundated Clayville, R.I., in four hours Saturday morning, and more than five inches were reported in parts of New England since Friday. Bristol, N.H., which received more than three inches of rain in 24 hours, has been saturated with 10.8 inches in a week, officials said.

In New Hampshire, authorities evacuated 400 campers from sites in Ossipee, Conway and Bartlett. The campers were given shelter at town halls and in service clubs, officials said.

The most serious flooding was along New Hampshire’s Pemigewasset River, which swept over its banks Saturday, the weather service’s River Forecast Center in Bloomfield, Conn., reported.

In the Great Plains, an early morning storm with 70-m.p.h. wind gusts roared through the central Kansas town of Hays, tearing limbs from trees.

Severe thunderstorm watches were posted in much of north-central and central Kansas as heavy rain fell in Ellsworth, Saline and McPherson counties.