HARTFORD, Conn. — Tropical Storm Henri, downgraded from a hurricane, spread across inland Connecticut on Sunday afternoon, bringing flash flooding, high winds and scattered power outages to the region.
The massive weather system is expected to dump sustained and heavy rain over most of Connecticut and the Hartford area beginning Sunday afternoon and lasting into Monday, while the shoreline, particularly east of the Connecticut River, could experience wind gusts of up to 65 miles per hour. Prolonged rainfall as the storm slows could produce extensive flooding in central and western Connecticut.
“Don’t get complacent,’' Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said at a Sunday afternoon news conference. The path of the storm has meant less wind but heavy rain and flooding remains “the biggest risk we have right now,” he said.
The center of the storm reached land around 12:15 p.m. near Westerly, R.I., the National Weather Service reported.
“Moving the eye of the storm up to Westerly, [it’s] outside the entrance to Long Island Sound. Outside the entrance a little bit means less storm surge inside Long Island Sound, less storm surge along our coast, which I think makes an enormous difference,” Lamont said.
About 27,000 Eversource customers were without power early Sunday afternoon. More than 75,000 customers were without power in Rhode Island. Four nursing homes on the shoreline — in Old Saybrook, Mystic, Guilford and West Haven — were safely evacuated, according to Lamont’s chief of staff Paul Mounds. A total of roughly 250 residents were relocated to other nursing homes, he said.
“It was expected to be downgraded to a tropical storm so that’s not surprising,’' Gary Lessor, chief meteorologist at Western Connecticut State University, said Sunday morning. “What was surprising is the storm intensity wasn’t quite to the level expected, so instead of tracking through central or eastern Connecticut, it appears to be tracking for landfall in Rhode Island.”
The change in the storm’s track is good news for central Connecticut, where a direct hit could have been “catastrophic,’’ Lessor said. But it doesn’t mean the state won’t face significant effects from Henri.
“You’re still going to have power outages,’’ he said. “There’s still enough dead trees in the state and they’re at a full canopy so when you get wind gusts over 40 mph, you’ve got to expect there’s going to be outages, just not of the magnitude that was expected.”
The heaviest rain and wind was reported out of Stonington and New London at mid-day Sunday, but the area avoided a surge of water from Long Island Sound.
For most of Connecticut, the storm’s shift in pathway means that rain, not high winds or storm surges.
“It looks like were going to be on the heaver rain side of the storm rather than the wind but we still anticipate quiet a few outages,’' said Frank Poirot, a spokesman for Eversource Energy, the state’s largest utility. “The ground is already saturated from storm Fred. A couple more inches of rain on top of that is just going to further undermine the root systems of trees and eventually lead to power outages.”
Lamont, who ordered 200 members of the Connecticut National Guard to prepare teams and specialized equipment to help in an emergency, said his main concern is now rain. “We’re not going to see hurricane force winds,’’ Lamont said Sunday morning. But, he added, “even a 40 or 50 mile-an-hour gust can uproot a tree ... given how soft the soil is.”
The wind will become less of an issue by late Sunday, Lessor said. “We’re looking at peak wind gusts west of the Connecticut River at under 50 mph, some places will be under 45 and in far western Connecticut, they maybe under 40,’’ he said. Gusts could exceed 65 mph in Southeastern Connecticut, especially on the immediate shoreline, he said.
“The highest wind gusts should be in by 2 o’clock, although it’s still going to stay windy or at least very breezy right on into tonight,’’ Lessor said.
The threat of storm surges on the shoreline also appeared to be diminishing, particularly west of the Connecticut River. “Generally, just minor coastal flooding is expected,’' Lessor said.
Rain associated with the long-duration storm system could create bigger problems, Lessor said. “Keep in mind were going to get hit today and there will be more rain tonight and [showers] tomorrow,’’ he said. “So while the wind concern is today, rain effects continue through Monday.”
Heavy rain, voluntary evacuations along shoreline
In Stonington, nestled in Connecticut’s southeast corner, First Selectman Danielle Chesebrough said that the town had been hit with wind and rain Sunday morning and a few trees had already come down, including one that crashed into a house, though no one was injured.
Across Saturday evening and Sunday morning, people trickled into the town’s emergency shelter at the Stonington High School, she said.
“We’re encouraging people to come before the storm picks up in the next hour,” Chesebrough said just before 10 a.m. from the town’s emergency operations center.
Even though the National Weather Service downgraded Henri from a hurricane to a tropical storm, Chesebrough said that she strongly encouraged residents in potential flood areas to stay with friends or family or go to the local shelter. Residents in safe locations should stay home and not venture out unnecessarily, she added.
“We’ve had a lot of people coming out, for example, down to the Stonington Point, to come and see the scene, and we are very concerned about storm surges, and that’s where most people lose their lives in storms like this,” she said.
Lamont said evacuations have taken place in some shoreline neighborhoods that are prone to flooding. Residents of at least one nursing home in Mystic were also moved, largely out of concerns about a prolonged power outage.
Officials in New Haven, Groton and Old Saybrook issued voluntary evacuations for residents and have asked residents to prepare to stay with family or at a hotel first before turning to town-offered shelters.
In New Haven, the voluntary evacuations so far include three areas on the east shore, specifically south of Myron Street; along the Mill River in Fair Haven, specifically at Haven Street and John Murphy Drive; and at City Point, specifically along South Water Street, Mayor Justin Elicker said.
In Groton, Lt. James Bee, deputy director of emergency management, said that there had been “no substantial or impactful damage” as of noon on Sunday. Town manager John Burt declared a state of emergency and urged residents to remain indoors until the storm passes.
By late morning, “sheets of rain” were falling on Old Saybrook, First Selectman Carl P. Fortuna Jr. said. But it seemed that the town would be spared hurricane-strength winds.
“I’m looking at the latest models and numbers and it doesn’t look like gusts are going to be any higher than they are right now, which is 40 mph ... we’ll see what kind of tree damage we have and power outages we have,” he said.
Since many of the town’s roads south of Route 1 are at risk of flooding, members of the Old Saybrook police department and volunteer fire department dropped bright pink fliers at residents’ homes on Saturday and Sunday morning urging residents to leave the area or take shelter at the local high school.
About 30 people had opted to shelter at the Old Saybrook Senior High School by late Sunday morning, Fortuna said.
Multiple Eversource trucks were stationed in town, ready to be deployed as needed, he added. In the days leading up to the storm, Eversource crews had taken down a number of dead trees in preparation for the surge.
“So far, we’re in good shape,” he said.
Power outages increasing
As of about noon, Eversource was reporting scattered power outages in New London County and Greenwich — about 20,000 in all — but Poirot said he expects those numbers to climb.
Eversource had initially predicted that 50% to 69% of its 1.25 million customers in Connecticut could lose power for up to 21 days, but the change in the storm’s track is expected to result in a new assessment, Poirot said.
Thousands of additional repair crews have been brought to to the state by Eversource to handle the possibility of mass power loss. The utility came under widespread criticism following Tropical Storm Isaias last summer. State regulators later found “inactions or deficiencies” that created a significant risk to public safety and ordered a reduction in Eversource’s return on equity by 0.9%, which amounts to about $31 million a year.
“With the change in the track of the storm, we will likely be updating our damage projections,’' Poirot said. “There might be some adjusting of crew assignments but we’ll wait until we get better numbers, better information on where this storm is going to be hitting the coast.’'
Tropical storm and surge warnings remain in effect along the shoreline from New Haven east through Rhode Island to Westport, Massachusetts. Tropical storm warnings are in effect across the remainder of the state and much of Southern New England and New York.
Hartford area expecting heavy rain
On Sunday afternoon, as the storm turns inland, forecasters say heavy rain will soak central Connecticut.
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin had some advice to city residents: “Hunker down and ride it out.”
Hartford experienced tremendous flooding on Thursday when the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred dumped 5 inches of rain in a matter of hours and Mayor Luke Bronin said the city is preparing for potentially even more severe impacts from Hurricane Henri.
The city’s public works crews already have been working since Thursday’s storm to clear drains and catch basins to try to prevent flooding and nearly every public works employee is expected to be called in to work by 7 a.m. Sunday ahead of Henri’s biggest impacts.
Henri wind
“This is still a very big possibly slow moving storm which means we are likely to get an awful lot of rain over the next day,’’ Bronin said at a Sunday morning press conference. “We have to be prepared for some very significant winds that are going to bring down trees and power lines....That means we could see some really significant flooding.”
Lamont and local emergency management officials across the state begged residents to stay put once the storm begins to allow first responders and utility crews to focus on helping those most in need and safely beginning a long restoration process.
“I know this is the last 10 days of August and you’re all looking for a bit of relaxation after what’s been a pretty tough year and a half,”Lamont said. “But we’ve got a little bit more to go and I want you to really err on the side of caution for the next three or four or five days and we’re going to get through this together.”
The storm will churn north across the state overnight into Monday, with strong winds and heavy rain continuing throughout, before it is pushed northeast across Massachusetts and the rest of New England throughout Monday and into Tuesday, according to the hurricane center.
Officials had initially feared Henri would make landfall in Connecticut as a hurricane, making it the first direct hit on the state since Hurricane Gloria in 1985.
“We only have so many threats of this magnitude that ever crop up during a year or even a decade,” said Bob Maxon, a meteorologist at NBC Connecticut.
Mass transit shutdowns, widespread business closures
Amtrak shut down service on the Northeast corridor between New York and Boston as of Sunday, as well as on the Springfield Line between New Haven and Springfield. Westfarms shopping mall said it was closed for the day.
Lamont overnight issued a travel ban on all empty tractor trailers, tandem trailers and motorcycles on I-95.
As of mid-morning Sunday, Bradley International Airport was open, but many airlines have adjusted their flight schedules. About half of today’s arriving and departing flights are canceled, said Alisa D. Sisic, manager of marketing for the airport. She advised passengers to contact their airline to confirm the latest flight information before coming to the airport.
Recreation areas across the state have been shut down ahead of the storm. Amtrak, Metro North and CT Transit all announced suspensions in service.
“This is going to be a team effort, this is going to be a very dangerous storm,” New Haven Emergency Management Director Rick Fontana said. “We may not have seen anything of this magnitude in many years, maybe even 30 or 40 years. This is going to be difficult, it’s going to take a lot of patience.”
Metro-North announced it would suspend service beginning 4 a.m. Sunday and that the last train on the line from Grand Central Terminal will leave at 1:53 a.m. Sunday before the storm starts. All CT Transit bus service also will be suspended until at least 3 a.m. Monday and the state judicial branch announced jury service would be canceled Monday.
All state campgrounds closed at 4 p.m. Saturday through at least Monday afternoon and the Metropolitan District announced that its recreation areas around area reservoirs and lakes in West Hartford, Bloomfield, Barkhamsted and Hartland would all be closed for the storm.
What’s causing the extreme weather?
Connecticut has had an eventful summer of weather, with several heat waves, a wave of storms in mid-July and now a potential hurricane.
“June was third-hottest June in 116 years, July was the third-wettest July in 116 years, so you went from the heat to the wetness,” Furey said. “We just had flooding rains yesterday and now we’re going to bring Henri in.”
Maxon said the heavy rainfall in July, plus the storm Thursday, could exacerbate the threat posed by Tropical Storm Henri.
“You throw [the storm] in with the saturated soil because of the rainy July we had, the third-wettest July on record, we had substantial and significant flooding yesterday, and we’re going to try to throw four-to-six inches of rain into this situation?” Maxon said. “That can lead to a lot of freshwater flooding, power outages and tree damage.”
Experts say extreme weather events are likely to become more common in Connecticut due to the effects of climate change.
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(Hartford Courant staff writer Amanda Blanco contributed to this report.)
