On Aug. 22, powerful wind coming off of Henri kicked up giant waves that slammed into the docks of Westport, Massachusetts, while people did what they could to secure their boats.
With Henri continuing to lose strength as it pushes farther inland, live storm coverage is ending. Thank you for following the storm with AccuWeather and be sure to visit AccuWeather.com, watch the AccuWeather TV Network and check the AccuWeather mobile app for continuing forecasts and coverage of Henri's impacts, which are expected to last through the early part of the week.
By late afternoon, Henri was barely holding on to tropical storm force -- its sustained winds were down to 40 mph and tropical-storm-force winds extended 35 miles out from the center, down from 125 miles hours earlier, according to the NHC. But the number of customers throughout New England who have lost power continued to climb as the day wore on. About 115,000 customers had electricity cut, with the majority, more than 72,000, of outages concentrated in Rhode Island, according to Poweroutage.us. More than 30,000 were without power in Connecticut, and Massachusetts had close to 11,000 outages.
As Henri swept northward into New England, several communities in New Jersey were inundated by torrential rainfall which totaled more than half a foot in many places by Sunday afternoon. Newark Public Safety Director Brian O’Hara said that “significant flooding” led to police and firefighters rescuing 86 people in 11 separate incidents related to Henri, according to The Associated Press. Several videos emerged and showed flooded areas, high-water rescues and vehicles becoming stranded in the floodwaters.
Traffic slowed to a crawl on a flooded roadway in Englishtown, located near the central New Jersey coast, on Sunday, and one Instagram user captured a car stalling out and getting stranded in the high water. As the video rolls throughout the whole incident, the audio reveals the reactions from the vehicle following behind. One man can be heard saying, “He’s going through it dude.” Another responds, “Go, go, go, go. Don’t stop.” And one man reflects “Should I help him?”
Severe flooding unleashed by Henri in Helmetta, New Jersey, also located in the middle of the state, led to a high-water rescue of a man and his dog, and onlookers captured it on video. The dog can be seen wagging its tail and shaking off water as it reaches the safety of dry ground.
As of 4:45 p.m. EDT Sunday, Henri was about 100 miles northeast of New York City and about 20 miles southeast of Hartford, Connecticut. The storm was just barely hanging on to tropical storm status with its maximum sustained winds hovering around 40 mph. All coastal tropical storm warnings have been discontinued, per the National Hurricane Center.
Henri will continue to move into New England this week, where it is forecast to weaken to a tropical depression by Monday, and eventually a tropical rainstorm. The storm is forecast to journey through Massachusetts before it eventually makes a sharp turn to the right where it will continue to unload heavy rain through Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. What's left of Henri is expected to pass close to Atlantic Canada during the middle of the week, forecasters say.
AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell caught up with a few summer vacationers in Charlestown, Rhode Island, who were riding out Henri without power and taking it all in stride. Charlestown is located east of Waverly, Rhode Island, and near where Henri crashed ashore Sunday. Ellen Scully told Wadell that power had gone out in her summer beach house before midday, and that conditions got wild when the storm came in. “It’s a little crazy. The house was shaking,” she explained. When the weather cleared a bit, she ventured down to the beach to see the waves. "I’ve never seen them quite this big," Scully said, adding that with the winds blowing she felt like she was "being poked by a thousand needles.” When asked how long she was prepared to endure a power outage, Scully said they were prepared for a couple of days, but quipped, “We might need to get a little creative with food selections,” and mentioned they bought extra pizzas to cook on the grill if needed.
Ellen Scully was without power in her beach home in Charlestown, Rhode Island, as Henri's impacts began moving onshore. (Bill Wadell)
Amy Snow, also vacationing in Charlestown, noted that the day before the storm was "a gorgeous day at the beach,” and that she thought the storm might be a bust given that. She noted that when she stepped out on a back porch during the storm, she couldn’t imagine winds being any higher. “I’m relieved it’s not worse,” Snow told Wadell. And with the power outage expected to persist, Snow said, "We’re doing a lot of reading and I guess we’ll go to bed early because it will be dark.”
Amy Snow spoke to AccuWeather's Bill Wadell in Charleston, Rhode Island, as Henri began to affect the region. (Bill Wadell)
The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) activated the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) on Sunday due to Tropical Storm Henri. The reporting system allows communication providers to report “communications infrastructure status and situational awareness information during times of crisis,” according to a press release from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Following the activation of the DIRS, the FCC asks that communication providers continue to provide updates on the state of their equipment, power and any restoration efforts that were needed following the storm.
On Sunday afternoon, Tropical Storm Henri began to slow down as it moved through Rhode Island. As of 2 p.m. EDT, all storm surge warnings associated with the tropical storm were discontinued as Henri sat 5 miles east of Westerly, Rhode Island, and 40 miles south-southwest of Providence, Rhode Island. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph and was moving northwest at 9 mph. Now that the storm has moved onshore, rapid weakening is forecast for Henri, According to the National Hurricane Center.
In Pawcatuck, Connecticut, the neighboring town to Westerly, Rhode Island, where Henri made landfall, the tropical storm’s winds downed countless trees and left debris strewn over residents’ homes and yards. At one house, AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell captured footage of a tree that had toppled onto a homeowner’s roof, destroying the chimney but thankfully sparing any further damage. The massive tree fell from the neighbor’s yard and appeared to have been sturdy, but couldn’t withstand the near-hurricane force winds.
According to Wadell, a woman who lives in the damaged home told AccuWeather that the house had just been put on the market to sell.
After initially closing some of the state’s most important bridges earlier on Sunday, the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority announced shortly before 1 p.m., local time, that the Mount Hope, Newport Pell and Jamestown Verrazzano bridges are reopened with restrictions for high-profile vehicles. The bridges were initially closed due to state police protocol that dictates bridges must stop operating once wind speeds exceed 70 mph for a sustained period of 15 minutes. As Henri moved inland and its wind speeds decreased, the bridges were reopened, The Newport Buzz reported.
After making landfall on the shores of Rhode Island around midday on Sunday, Henri's sustained winds had dropped to 60 mph. Its forward speed had dropped to 12 mph and tropical-storm-force winds extended outward up to 125 miles from Henri's center, according to the NHC. The heaviest rain is likely to fall to the north and west of Henri's exact track, which AccuWeather forecasters expect will take it northwest on Sunday into Monday. Henri is then forecast to make a sharp turn to the east as it moves over Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine through the early week, all while continuing to lose intensity.
Upon making landfall shortly after noon on Sunday, Tropical Storm Henri became the first named storm to make landfall in Rhode Island in almost exactly 30 years. In 1991, Hurricane Bob made its second landfall in Newport, Rhode Island, on Aug. 19. Like Henri, Bob also made first contact with The Ocean State on Block Island before moving inland to Newport. Newport is located just 27 miles from Westerly, Rhode Island, where Henri touched down.
FILE - In this Aug. 20, 1991, file photo, boat owners gather their belongings along the shore in Dartmouth, Mass., after Hurricane Bob swept through southern Massachusetts. New Englanders, bracing for their first direct hit by a hurricane in 30 years, are taking precautions as Tropical Storm Henri barrels toward the southern New England coast. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Tropical Storm Henri officially made landfall near Westerly, Rhode Island, just after noon, according to the NHC. Located in western Rhode Island near the border with Connecticut, the town was on the receiving end of Henri's maximum sustained winds of 60 mph at time landfall, around 12:15 p.m., local time. Henri is expected to continue overwhelming the area with damaging winds and flooding rainfall. As of 12:30 p.m., more than 75,000 residents in the state are without power, according to PowerOutage.us, a figure that is sure to rise.
Henri is the third landfalling tropical storm of the 2021 season to come ashore on U.S. soil, following Elsa and Fred. Westerly is about 10 miles east of Mystic, Connecticut, the site of a famous pizza place that inspired the title of the 1988 Julia Roberts film Mystic Pizza.
A truck drives through a flooded Atlantic Ave in Westerly, R.I., as Tropical Storm Henri approaches, Sunday, Aug. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Stew Milne)
One storm chaser recorded a 76 mph gust at Point Judith, Rhode Island, on a handheld wind meter as Tropical Storm Henri moved onshore Sunday morning. A nearby weather station clocked a gust of 70 mph, while Block Island gusted to 69 mph earlier in the morning, along with a 68 mph gust at Newport.
On the latest episode of AccuWeather's Weather Insider podcast, Chief Broadcast Meteorologist Bernie Rayno discusses the expected impacts from Henri once the tropical system makes landfall and moves inland over southern New England. Rayno is warning that Henri's impacts are going to "last for days." Give it a listen below.
People in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts are finding themselves in the dark this morning as Tropical Storm Henri hits the region. Rhode Island leads the way with nearly 45,000 power outages as of late Sunday morning, according to PowerOutage.US. Power outages are expected to climb even higher throughout Sunday afternoon as Henri moves inland and over more populated areas.
Rainfall from Tropical Storm Henri on Saturday night was as high as 14.3 inches in Concordia, New Jersey, with a widespread area of 5-12 inches from Manahawkin to Hopewell. Stranded vehicles, closed roads, and water rescues were reported.
AccuWeather's wind flow tool shows how Henri was churning up sustained winds and gusts as the storm loomed ever closer to landfall on Sunday morning. Along with heavy rain, strong winds were spreading across, Long Island, Rhode Island and Connecticut as the center of the storm closed in. See below for more and track Henri's wind gusts in real time here.
This wind flow map shows Tropical Storm Henri shortly before landfall on Sunday, Aug. 22, 2021. (AccuWeather)
As of 10 a.m., the eye of Tropical Storm Henri was just on the doorsteps of Rhode Island, just 75 miles south of Providence. Tropical-storm-force wind gusts along with heavy precipitation were impacting Block Island, AccuWeather radar showed. Back in 1991, Block Island sustained the first of two landfalls in Rhode Island made by Hurricane Bob. With its 10 a.m. advisory, the NHC changed the hurricane warnings in effect for Long Island, the southern coast of New England and Block Island to tropical storm warnings.
AccuWeather radar showed Tropical Storm Henri on the verge of making landfall in Rhode Island as of 10 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 22, 2021. (AccuWeather)
Many areas along the coast of Long Island and southern New England are experiencing high tide right around the same time that Henri is nearing landfall. According to a water gauge at Montauk, New York, the water level was around 4.5 feet around 9:40 a.m. EDT, which is 2 feet above the normal tide level. This measurement was talked about half an hour after high tide at the station. Other water gauges near the region’s coast were reporting similar storm surge values, including at New London, Connecticut, and Newport, Rhode Island.
The Earthcam webcam at Montauk, New York on the afternoon of August 21, 2021 and the morning of August 22, 2021 shows Tropical Storm Henri's storm surge.
Henri has forced the postponement of two Major League Baseball games that were scheduled to take place on Sunday. The Boston Red Sox announced Sunday that the game against the Texas Rangers set to be played at Fenway Park will now be played on Monday, Aug. 23. In the announcement, the Red Sox reiterated officials' calls for "all residents to use caution throughout the day on Sunday and only travel if absolutely necessary" as Henri impacts the region.
The series finale set to be played in the Bronx between the New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins was rescheduled for Sept. 13 "due to the forecast of inclement weather," the Yankees announced on Twitter. Perhaps the only thing that could postpone the Yankees' hot streak is the impact of a tropical storm. Behind the starting pitching of ace Gerrit Cole, the Bronx Bombers defeated the Twins 7-1 on Saturday -- the team's ninth consecutive win.
The eye of Henri is less than 50 miles from Montauk, New York, and tropical storm conditions are starting to be felt across the region. AccuWeather National Weather Reporter Kim Leoffler was at Montauk Sunday morning near the tumultuous ocean as waves crashed ashore amid gusty winds. Farther off the coast, waves 18 feet tall were observed by a buoy operated by NOAA. Another buoy off the coast of Montauk clocked wind gusts over 50 mph. Conditions are expected to get worse leading up to landfall later on Sunday.
Radar imagery early on Sunday morning showed the eye of Tropical Storm Henri, which had been downgraded from a hurricane overnight, closing in on southern New England. Despite the fact that Henri was now on track to miss making landfall on Long Island, New York, it certainly wasn't sparing Long Island any of the impacts. As of 8 a.m. Sunday morning, Henri was about 40 miles south-southeast of Montauk and 75 miles south of Providence Rhode Island. Rough surf was impacting the southern and eastern coast of Long Island and heavy rains were pushing inland. According to the NHC, tropical storm conditions were being felt as far out as 125 miles from the center of Henri and radar showed heavy precipitation falling across Long Island, parts of Connecticut and parts of Massachusetts. Henri had slowed a bit and was moving north-northwest at 16 mph.
A radar image shows Henri nearing landfall early on Sunday, Aug. 22, 2021. (AccuWeather)
A difference of just a few miles will likely lead to Henri making its first U.S. landfall in southern New England, not Long Island. AccuWeather forecasters say Henri has been moving swiftly northward at a blistering pace of 21 mph toward the Northeast from late Saturday into Sunday morning. "It’s looking more likely that Long Island will be spared a direct strike from Henri, as the storm continues to charge northward at a swift pace and has yet to make a turn to the west as of early Sunday morning," AccuWeather Meteorologist Reneé Duff explained. Henri is now forecast to come ashore near the border between Connecticut and Rhode Island early Sunday afternoon. Despite the slight shift in track, AccuWeather forecasters emphasize that the overall impacts from Henri will largely remain unchanged. "Residents of Long Island should not let their guard down with the storm’s shift in track, as there will still be heavy rainfall, storm surge, flooding, and damaging wind gusts," Duff cautioned.
As Henri bears down on the coast of southern New England, one power company in Connecticut is warning that hundreds of thousands of customers may lose power and may not come back on the grid for up to 3 weeks. In a press release issued on Saturday, Connecticut power company Eversource declared an Emergency Response Plan Level 2. The company estimates between 50 and 69 percent of its 1.25 million customers may lose power as a result of Henri. And if that news isn't grim enough, the company estimates that power restoration could take anywhere from 8 to 21 days. According to the press release, "thousands of trees could come down during this hurricane, further complicating power restoration efforts." With this timeline, it is not out of the question that some customers could be out of power into the Labor Day weekend. AccuWeather forecasters predict a significant portion of southern New England will experience power outages as a result of Henri.
A sign in Old Saybrook, Conn., warns residents that a state of emergency is in effect due to Henri approaching (AccuWeather / Bill Wadell)
Several notable transportation providers have announced suspensions in service as Henri is set to impact the Northeast on Sunday. Amtrak has canceled all Northeast Corridor service, including the Northeast Regional and Acela, between New York City and Boston on Sunday. Amtrak also announced that portions of the Lake Shore Limited, Vermonter and Springfield lines will be shut down on Sunday. In addition, New York City's MTA announced that portions of the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North will suspend service on Sunday.
AccuWeather Broadcast Meteorologist Melissa Constanzer spoke with Ken Graham, the Director of the National Hurricane Center (NHC) on Saturday to get the latest on Henri. Graham stressed that the focus should be on the overall impacts of the storm, rather than the designation of Henri itself. "There's no such thing as just a Category 1 hurricane or just a tropical storm," Graham cautioned. "The impacts from Henri are going to be so significant." AccuWeather forecasters say Henri is rated a 2 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes due to the risk for damaging winds, coastal inundation and flooding rainfall. This scale, in contrast to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, takes into account a broader range of impacts, rather than wind speed alone. Click here to watch the full interview with Ken Graham.
Meteorologists frequently rely on satellite imagery to make informed forecast decisions based on images taken from orbit, and sometimes those images are captured by an astronaut. On Saturday, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Astronaut Megan McArthur shared an incredible view of Hurricane Henri as seen from the International Space Station (ISS) as the storm churned over the Atlantic Ocean. "Stay safe, friends," McArthur wrote on Twitter.
Hurricane Henri, captured from the International Space Station on Saturday, August 21, 2021. (Image: Megan McArthur, @Astro_Megan on Twitter)
Flash flooding issues have already begun to crop up across the greater New York City metro, even ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Henri. On Saturday evening, heavy storms brought widespread rainfall totals between 1.75 and 3.25 inches across parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, as well as Newark and Jersey City, New Jersey. This amount of rain fell in just under three hours and left some subway operations halted, flooded roadways and people stranded in its wake. At one point just before midnight on Saturday, more than 4.1 million people were under a flash flood warning across the metro. AccuWeather forecasters say that the same areas impacted by flooding rainfall late Saturday are at risk for an additional 2-4 inches of rain from Henri, beginning early Sunday morning. This additional rainfall can worsen ongoing flooding concerns and complicate clean-up efforts from Saturday's storms.
This image ,captured just after 11 p.m. EDT Saturday, August 21, 2021, shows heavy rain continuing to fall across portions of New York and New Jersey. (AccuWeather)
The most recent update on Henri from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) has placed the center of the Category 1 hurricane 180 miles south-southeast of Montauk, New York. AccuWeather meteorologists say Henri will likely make landfall late Sunday morning somewhere between Smith Point and Montauk, New York. Henri will continue to track generally to the north overnight Saturday into Sunday.
The total damage and economic loss from Henri is estimated to be between $8 billion and $12 billion, according to AccuWeather Founder and CEO Dr. Joel N. Myers. According to Myers, storm surge will be the biggest hazard that Henri poses to the region. Despite being a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale and a 2 on AccuWeather’s RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes, Myers said the location of the landfall highly populated with many expensive homes. “There are multi-million-dollar homes on Long Island, particularly in the Hamptons and the south coasts of Rhode Island and Connecticut, and many properties are close to the shore,” he explained. The last hurricane that made landfall in New England was Bob in 1991. It caused $1.5 billion in damages, which roughly equates to $3 billion in today's dollars.
With Hurricane Henri on course to slam directly into Long Island, New York, packing a slew of hazards, here are a few things to know about the area:
• Nearly 3 million people live on the main portion of the island, consisting of Nassau and Suffolk counties.
• Including the NYC boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn, which is the extreme western end of LI, Long Island's population is more than 7 million.
• More than one-third of New York state's population of nearly 20 million is living on Long Island.
• Long Island is 23 miles wide at its widest point, 118 miles long -- hence the name -- and has about 1,600 miles of shoreline. • Long Island boasts some of the country's most expensive real estate, particularly in the Hamptons, where many celebrities own second homes and real estate has been booming since the onset of the pandemic.
• The Hamptons are also popular among the uber-wealthy, with a portion of it nicknamed "billionaire's lane" due to the eye-popping property values and the many billionaires who own the lavish estates.
On Saturday, President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for the state of Rhode Island ahead of Hurricane Henri’s landfall. The emergency declaration orders federal assistance to aid states, tribes and local communities in response to the hurricane. The disaster declaration was announced in a press release, which CBS reporter Ted Nesi shared to Twitter.
As people were abandoning vacations early and preparing for the arrival of Henri in Long Island, similar scenes were playing out across New England. According to The Associated Press, many boat owners across Massachusetts and Rhode Island could be seen pulling their vessels from the water in an effort to shelter them from the onslaught of wind, heavy rain and storm surge that's expected. And, in one of the hallmark images of hurricane preparation, workers were photographed using plywood to board up the sliding glass doors of a home in Charlestown, Rhode Island.
James Masog, center, and Gary Tavares, right, move particle board into place to board up the sliding glass doors of a clients house in Charlestown, R.I., ahead of Hurricane Henri, Saturday, Aug. 21, 2021. New Englanders, bracing for their first direct hit by a hurricane in 30 years, are taking precautions as Tropical Storm Henri barrels toward the southern New England coast. (AP Photo/Stew Milne)
As of the last update from the NHC, Henri's center was 255 miles south of Montauk, which is the very end of Long Island, New York. Henri's hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 45 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 150 miles. It had picked up forward speed and was moving to the north-northeast at 18 mph, and AccuWeather forecasters are predicting landfall somewhere from the middle to the eastern portion of the island on Sunday.
People were seen fleeing in cars back in Sept. 1985 as Hurricane Gloria closed on on the Atlantic Coast. (NWS)
It's been 36 years since a hurricane has made landfall in Long Island and the scene Saturday on Long Island was eerily reminscent of that in 1985 when Hurricane Gloria was bearing down. As Gloria approached, some 380,000 were evacuated up and down the East Coast. Mandatory evacuations were not ordered in Long Island ahead of Henri, but as AccuWeather National Reporter Kim Leoffler observed, many cars were seen heading west as people fled the storm zone on Saturday. Clearly many were heeding the calls of forecasters and government officials who urged caution as Henri drew closer threatening serious impacts.
Mandatory evacuation orders were issued in Guilford and Branford, Connecticut, on Saturday evening ahead of Hurricane Henri’s landfall in the Northeast, State Representative Sean Scanlon announced. Both towns are located on the north shore of the Long Island Sound, just east of New Haven. Those living in costal, low-lying or prone-to-flooding areas must evacuate immediately, while those living in Zone 1 or 2 in Branford must evacuate by 9 p.m., local time. Evacuation zones can be found here.
On Saturday afternoon, President Joe Biden joined governors in the Northeast, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall in a call to discuss Hurricane Henri and its impending landfall. According to the White House, the officials discussed how governors in the northeast are working with FEMA and the National Guard to respond to the impacts of the hurricane, which is currently rated a 2 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes due to anticipated rainfall, damaging winds and storm surge that is forecast to impact the Northeast. Criswell said FEMA is pre-positioning in the region to provide more than 700 response personnel, meals, tarps and generators.
At the peak of Henri’s impacts on the Northeast, up to 3 million power outages may be reported, AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter warns. The outages, which will likely be focused in Connecticut, Long Island, Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts, could take up to a week or more to be fully restored, Porter said. In addition, the winds from Henri will be coming from the southeast — an unusual direction for the Northeast to experience strong winds from. These strong winds put trees and power lines at an even higher risk of toppling over, potentially causing more outages. By early Saturday evening, over 1,300 residents of New York state were already without power, and over 1,500 were without power in New Jersey, according to poweroutage.us.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency for the city on Saturday afternoon as the Northeast awaits landfall of Hurricane Henri. Henri is forecast to make landfall on Long Island on Sunday. The mayor’s state of emergency declaration suspends the Open Restaurants Program that allowed restaurants to serve patrons on the streets and sidewalks from midnight on Sunday until 6 a.m. on Monday, local time. In addition, builders and contractors are asked to secure their equipment, construction sites and buildings immediately. Construction work that is taking place on property that is not fully enclosed must stop as of midnight on Sunday and cannot resume until 6 a.m. on Monday.
Beachgoers from Savannah, Georgia, to Atlantic City, New Jersey, can expect rough surf and rip currents as a result of Henri's journey along the East Coast. Rip currents are water channels that can pull swimmers into the ocean, farther away from the shore. They can vary in size from being just 10 to 20 feet wide, to even 10 times larger. According to the United States Life Saving Association, over 100 people are killed by rip currents each year. On Wednesday afternoon, A 50-year-old father and his 28-year-old son were killed in a rip current near the Oak Island Pier in North Carolina, WECT reported.
Henri is set to make landfall on Long Island on Sunday before eventually heading into New England. But according to forecasters, this won't be Henri's first brush with the United States. As AccuWeather Meteorologist and Staff Writer Brian Lada explained, Henri's history goes back to early August, when a complex of thunderstorms ignited across the central United States then tracked eastward all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Click here to get the rest of the story of how Henri was born.
Ahead of Henri’s anticipated landfall, New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo has issued a state of emergency for Long Island, New York City, Westchester, Hudson Valley and the Capital District region. The state of emergency declaration will allow the areas to receive federal aid. Cuomo advised that residents in the area “stock up” and prepare for power outages. “I hope people take this very seriously,” Cuomo said. “The hurricane is supposed to hit, specifically on Long Island.” FEMA Public Affairs Director Jaclyn Rothenberg said that FEMA is prepared to respond to states, tribes and territories as they are affected by Henri.
On the latest edition of AccuWeather's Weather Insider podcast, AccuWeather Chief Broadcast Meteorologist Bernie Rayno says Henri is on schedule as the newly formed hurricane remains on track to impact the Northeast. Rayno discusses the latest forecast for the storm, as well as the possibility of Henri reaching Category 2 status. Hear more from Rayno below.
Soaking rainfall will arrive across Long Island and southern New England as Henri approaches early Sunday morning. The heaviest rainfall of 4-8 inches with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 12 inches will aim for the eastern tip of Long Island, parts of Connecticut, Rhode Island and western Massachusetts. AccuWeather forecasters say that’s enough rain to lead to flooding problems, especially since the ground is saturated in Tropical Rainstorm Fred’s wake. The soggy ground could compound another threat too, since trees will be even more susceptible to toppling when high winds roar across the region.
This infrared satellite image shows Hurricane Henri shortly after 11 a.m. EDT Saturday after it had strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane. (AccuWeather)
Shortly before 11 a.m. EDT Saturday, Henri strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph. It was quickly moving north-northeastward at 14 mph and was 180 miles from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. This is the strongest the storm has been along its nearly week-long trek across the western Atlantic. The system was first named Tropical Depression Eight near Bermuda last Sunday. When it was later named Tropical Storm Henri, it joined the active Atlantic basin with Grace and Fred. AccuWeather forecasters warn that the storm is on a collision course with Long Island, New York, and portions of the Northeast could start to see torrential downpours, strong wind gusts and inundating storm surge to coastal areas beginning early Sunday.
The New York City Parks department announced all city beaches would be closed on Sunday and Monday due to the anticipated impacts from Henri, which is expected to make landfall on Long Island Sunday. New York City is under a tropical storm warning, and hurricane warnings are in effect for much of Long Island, New York, which is to the east of New York City and includes the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn.
As Henri threatens to become the first hurricane to make landfall in Long Island in nearly 36 years, forecasters are saying one of the biggest concerns will be the power outages it could cause. On Friday, local power company PSEG Long Island warned in a press release that given the potential intensity of the storm, some resulting outages could last up to seven to 10 days, with the eastern end of Long Island expected to experience the most severe weather and impact.
“Power outages are a huge concern for Henri — the New York and southern New England area haven’t been affected by a big tropical storm since Superstorm Sandy in 2012, when 8.6 million customers lost power,” AccuWeather Senior Weather Editor Jesse Ferrell said. “Before that, nearly 7 million lost power during Hurricane Irene in 2011. If Henri moves slowly once inland, this will cause power restoration to be delayed.”
