Cranston firefighters respond to a house at 13-15 Strathcona Rd., in Cranston, Thursday morning after a large tree limb fell on the house during a sudden downpour. No injuries were reported.

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

PROVIDENCE — Thursday’s word of the day: Noachian. As in flood.

The sky bellowed. The lightning crackled. The wind lashed. The rain hammered.

So, how wet was it?

Charles Foley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said that by mid-afternoon Providence had collected 2.78 inches, a generous portion from a single storm system.

The squall line turned the sky dark in mid-morning and disabled electrical service in several parts of the state. A spokeswoman for National Grid said Thursday evening that no significant power failures remained.

The weather service issued flash-flood and hazardous-weather watches that were to remain in effect until 8 p.m. on Thursday for much of New England. The weather service predicted a 30 percent chance of more thunderstorms Friday, and a 20 percent chance of thunderstorms on Saturday.

The lights went out early Thursday morning in the Providence Journal Building, on Fountain Street. The building stayed dark for around an hour.

Around the state, police and fire departments had taken a bit of a breather overnight, after many had toiled with flooding Wednesday.

In West Greenwich, where the National Weather Service reported that a man was struck by lightning Wednesday afternoon, police dispatcher Dennis Etchells said that report was unconfirmed. A man was taken to a hospital after workers noticed him walking across a parking lot on Victory Highway (Route 102) and then suddenly saw him lying on the ground.

The workers reported the man had been struck by lightning, but the police now do not believe that was the case, Etchells said.

In North Kingstown, a lightning strike around 7:30 a.m. proved a close call for the homeowner at 51 Riptide Drive. Deputy Fire Chief Fenwick Gardiner said the bolt struck a tree near the house and sent a piece of patio stone flying up onto the deck. Lightning also struck a utility pole early Thursday on Boston Neck Road in Wickford, Gardiner said, severing the primary power lines, which fell into the street. Homes in a concentrated area in that part of the village lost power, but service was restored later in the morning, according to Gardiner.

A lightning strike knocked out the business phone lines at the Providence Public Safety Complex for about an hour in the morning, but 911 service was not disrupted because backup lines worked properly.

William Trinque — the director of communications who oversees the dispatch for all police, fire and emergency medical calls — said he saw a lightning strike around 8 a.m. “It was huge,” he said of the jagged streak.

The lightning that knocked out the phone service blew out a duplicating switch that serves the telephone lines for the public safety complex, at 325 Washington St., Trinque said.

Fire crews were busy tackling flooding in the usual low-lying places, such as Valley and Plainfield streets, Trinque said. A couple of cars were stuck, but Trinque said there were no major problems in the city.

Gail Mastrati, a spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Management, said that DEM workers placed sandbags to handle a breach of a dam at Harris Pond in Hopkinton to guard Woodville Road, a state road downstream.

She reported that the main part of the dam is about 11 feet high and that the part that breached was only two to three feet high and four to five feet long. The sandbags were holding well, she said.

tmorgan@projo.com