Hurricane Arthur Contributes to Rainy Holiday

A flash flood warning is in effect for New London County.

Following heavy rains and severe thunderstorms on Thursday, more rain is in the forecast for the 4th of July Friday and Hurricane Arthur continues to travel north along the East Coast.

The flash flood warning for New London County expired at 1:15 p.m., but there is a flood watch in effect in northern New London, Fairfield, Middlesex and New Haven counties until 10 p.m. Ocean Beach Park is closed Friday due to lightning and strong currents.

There's also a flood watch is in effect Friday until 11 p.m. for Hartford, Tolland and Windham counties, including Hartford, Windsor Locks, Union, Vernon, Putnam and Willimantic, according to the National Weather Service.

Hurricane Arthur was downgraded to a category 1 hurricane Friday at about 9: 30 a.m. and is about 150 miles east of Connecticut, according to NBC meteorologist Monica Cryan. That's after the storm had been upgraded to a category 2 storm on Thursday evening.

Expect rain throughout the day, particularly in eastern Connecticut, lingering in parts of the state until midnight and likely clearing up in western Connecticut by 5 p.m., Cryan said. You may hear scattered rumbles of thunder.

The rainy forecast has prompted some towns to postpone fireworks and cancel 4th of July events. The Groton parade was canceled and no rain date was announced. The Cheshire fireworks have also been postponed until Saturday.

Rain and wind around the state has caused trees and wires to come down in some areas.

Litchfield County Dispatch responded to a report of a tree on wires and a possible fire on Millerton Road in Sharon late afternoon, but no other information was immediately available.

There were 550 customers without power as of 2:18 p.m. in Deep River due to reports of downed wires burning and a tree limb down on Bridge Street.

A tree fell on a utility pole near a transformer on Tryon Street in South Glastonbury late morning, bending the pole.

Hebron Avenue was closed most of Friday due to a tree down on power lines, according to State Police. The road reopened just before 4:30 p.m.

Grove Road and Garden Terrace are blocked off Friday, as of 1:33 p.m., as crews make repairs to three telephone poles snapped due to the storms overnight and high winds that also blew down trees and caused power outages. According to CL&P, 80 customers were without power in Meriden as of 4:48 p.m.

A neighbor told NBC Connecticut that lightning struck a pole CL&P crews are working to repair and that caused it to snap.

Connecticut Light & Power crews are on scene. Seventy-eight CL&P customers are currrently without power in Glastonbury.

Route 21 reopened in Thompson after it was closed overnight, but there are several trees down in the area so police said to be cautious if you choose to drive on that route.

Nearly 20,000 customers were without power Thursday at the height of the storms, according to the Connecticut Light & Power outage map. Just before noon on Friday, 2,526 customers were without power.

Berlin police reported trees and wires down across town on Thursday, particularly in the Worthington Ridge area, and Southington police said they dealt with numerous accidents on Thursday evening, some of which may be weather related.

The state Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security is monitoring the hurricane and keeping tabs on potential indirect impacts to Connecticut, according to a news release from Gov. Dannel Malloy's office.

The town of Old Saybrook prepared ahead of time by launching StormArthur.com to keep residents up to date on the storm's developments.

More information about the state's response to Arthur can be found online.

Anyone who loses power during the storms should call Connecticut Light & Power at 1-800-286-2000.

The best news is that the rain is expected to move out late Friday, leaving the second part of the holiday weekend dominated by beautiful sunny weather Saturday and Sunday.

People planning on going to Rhode Island beaches this weekend should be cautious and check for the latest Arthur update and weather forecast before heading out.

Send your weather photos to shareit@nbcconnecticut.com.

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