People evacuated popular beach communities and made last-minute runs on batteries and gasoline as Hurricane Henri churned closer to Long Island and southern New England, while officials pleaded with the millions of people in the storm’s path to brace themselves for torrential rain and storm surges.
Hurricane Henri was on course to collide Sunday in the late morning or afternoon with a long stretch of coastline, as hurricane warnings extended from near the old whaling port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, across the luxurious oceanfront estates of New York’s Hamptons, to the summer getaway of Fire Island.
Intense winds and potentially dangerous tidal surges were expected as far east as Cape Cod and as far west as the New Jersey shore, and utilities warned ensuing power outages could last a week or even more. Governors urged people to stay home during the brunt of the storm.
Henri was veering a bit further west than originally expected, placing eastern Long Island in its bull’s-eye rather than New England. That gave people directly in the storm’s path less time to prepare.
A mandatory evacuation order was issued for some residents closest to the water in Madison, Connecticut. First Selectwoman Peggy Lyons wrote in a public notice, that any “residents who do not leave the evacuation zone by 9 p.m. tonight are putting their lives at risk and public safety crews will not be able to respond to you once winds exceed 50 mph.”