Henri comes close, but skirts around Long Island

All warnings and watches for Long Island have been canceled by the National Weather Service as Tropical Storm Henri continues to move inland.

A tropical storm warning remains in effect for Long Island Sound.

The center of Tropical Storm Henri is now located about 50 miles northwest of Montauk Point, near Colchester, Connecticut and is moving toward the west-northwest at near 7 mph, the National Weather Service said in a statement just before 6 p.m.

Henri is bringing 40 mph winds and heavy rain to central Connecticut, according to the statement. The storm is expected to slow down further and possibly stall near the Connecticut-New York border tonight, then move across northern Connecticut or southern Massachusetts by Monday afternoon, the weather service said.

The main threat from Henri is now heavy rain capable of producing flash flooding. The threat of rough seas, high surf, and dangerous rip currents continues at the ocean beaches, the weather service said.

Henri’s track just east of the Long Island spared Suffolk County the worst of the storm’s impacts. When it made landfall in Narragansett, Rhode Island this afternoon, its 70 mph winds tore off roof shingles and toppled trees.

Henri pounded the north shore beaches in Riverhead and across the North Fork with strong, gusty winds and rough surf. National Weather Service meteorologists warned of the possibility of severe beach erosion as a result of the storm.

Suffolk County remains under a flood watch until 8 p.m. Monday as the area may experience heavy rain tonight and showers may linger through the day tomorrow.

As of 3 p.m. most of the local area saw less than two inches of rainfall over the past 24 hours, according to the National Weather Service in New York. Winds peaked between 40 and 50 mph locally today. No additional wind or storm surge impacts are expected, the weather service said.

County Executive Steve Bellone said this morning the experience with Henri, whose forecast track moved west and east a few times over the past few days as it traveled up the coast, “is really a reminder of how difficult it is to project trajectories” of tropical storms.

“You hope for the best and prepare for the worst,” he said, “and that’s what we’ve done.

“Yesterday, it looked like Long Island could take a direct hit from a hurricane for the first time in more than 30 years,” he said. “Then last night we got the good news that the storm was tracking further east.”

Though the storm had been downgraded to a tropical storm, “we remain vigilant,” Bellone said. “This time last year a tropical storm that did not directly hit us knocked out power to about 650,000 homes and businesses,” he said, recalling Isiais.

PSEG-Long Island said as of 3:30 p.m. today, it had restored power to 2,528 customers since midnight and 730 customers remained without service. It said it expected to restore power to most of those customers by tonight. As of 6:30 p.m. there remained 381 customers affected, according to the utility’s online outage map.

Bellone said about 20 families had sought shelter in one of the several shelters the American Red Cross had set up in Suffolk County. He said most of those seeking shelter were on the East End. In addition to a shelter at Riverhead High School, the Red Cross set up shelters in Hampton Bays, East Hampton, Farmingville and Brentwood.

American Red Cross volunteer Mark Langholz, shelter manager at Riverhead High School, said this morning four families were put up there overnight. The shelter had backup generator power and plenty of food and water, said Langholz.

“I have set up 20 cots as a starter,” he said. “We have many more cots and blankets in the supply trailer.”

He said the shelter would remain operational as long as there remained a threat that residents might be displaced by storm impacts. For information about the status of the shelters, call 1-800-733-2767.