Hurricane Henri: Storm Path, Projected Rainfall Totals For Historic Long Island, New England Storm

It has been 30 years since a legitimate hurricane made landfall on either Long Island, New York or in the New England states, and now, Hurricane Henri seems poised and ready to bring potentially catastrophic and nasty weather to the region.

After strengthening to a Category 1 storm on Saturday morning, with sustained winds of 75 mph, the storm is projected to maintain hurricane status as it approaches the Southern shore of Long Island at 8 Am Sunday, according to the latest projected path from the National Hurricane Center. By 8 p.m. Sunday, it is expected to once again weaken to a tropical storm, as it approaches the Southern Connecticut shoreline. The storm is expected to continue to weaken and then make an Eastern turn as it continues a path through New England on Monday and Tuesday.

The storm is expected to bring dangerous storm surge to the coasts of Long Island, as well as Connecticut and Rhode Island, Hurricane and Tropical Storm conditions including high wind speeds and heavy rainfall, as well as a potential for flash flooding in affected areas. Portions of Central Long Island could see as much as 6-10" of total rain from the storm, with other areas reaching 4-6", including through Western Connecticut and Massachusetts. More Eastern areas, including all of Rhode Island, could see anything between 1-4" of total rainfall.

The entire area is under a variety of different hurricane or tropical storm watches and warnings, in addition to flash flood warnings and watches as well.

According to CNBC, the storm’s center is expected to make landfall midafternoon on Sunday, and the center will most likely land in Connecticut, though there is still a chance that it could hit Long Island or another part of southern New England.

Regardless of where the storm hits, it will be a historic one for the area, which has not had a direct hit from a hurricane since Hurricane Bob in 1991. That storm came ashore as a Category 2.

The last major storm to hit New York was Superstorm Sandy in 2012, which had devastating impacts on the New Jersey shoreline, New York City, and western parts of Long Island. By the time that storm finished, it had caused $74.1 billion in damages and 72 deaths in the United States.

In preparation for Henri’s approach, PSE&G, which supplies electrical power to Long Island, warned residents on Friday that depending on the extent of the damage from the storm, it could take crews 7-10 days to fully restore power to the region.

“It’s not always about the number of crews you have, it’s getting into some tighter areas and there’s going to be some pockets of extreme damage that we’ll try to get as fast as we can,” Richard Henderson, a PSEG Long Island Overheard and Underground Lines manager told News 12 The Bronx. “The damage could have a few hundred thousand customers without lights so that’s a lot of lights to put back on.”