New England Readies for Tropical Storm Henri

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• Published Aug. 20, 2021Updated Aug. 21, 2021, 12:39 p.m. ET

BOSTON — As Hurricane Henri churned up the East Coast on Saturday, communities from New York to Boston prepared for what would be the first hurricane to make landfall on Long Island or in New England in at least 30 years.

Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts said he had activated as many as 1,000 members of the state’s National Guard to make high-water rescues and clear debris. In Connecticut, where several southern counties were under a hurricane watch, Gov. Ned Lamont said he was declaring a state of emergency. And the utility PSEG Long Island warned customers that power outages could last seven to 10 days in the wake of the storm.

Henri was projected to make landfall on Long Island or in southern New England as a Category 1 storm on Sunday afternoon, although its precise track remained uncertain.

As the weather reports evolved, Christine Oakland-Hill, the owner of Oakland’s Restaurant & Marina on Long Island, became increasingly fearful of a damaging storm. Her business is in the beachy town of Hampton Bays, and the road to the restaurant floods easily, she said.

“It’s emotional,” Ms. Oakland-Hill said on Saturday morning. “This is our livelihood, our legacy. It’s really hard. It’s scary.”

Dangerous storm surge from Henri, which strengthened into a hurricane with 75-mile-per-hour winds on Saturday morning, was projected in parts of Long Island, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. But even if it were to swerve toward New York City, a repeat of Hurricane Sandy was unlikely.

It earlier looked more likely that the storm would directly hit New England, sending customers to Adler’s Design Center & Hardware in Providence, R.I., where they bought all of the store’s kerosene lamps before moving on to flashlights and candles, said Leanne Dolloff, a cashier.

But even then, many longtime residents of the region were skeptical that the storm would be too disruptive.

“We’re New Englanders, we can handle it,” said Ms. Dolloff, 40, who remembers waking up to a floating bed in her Lowell, Mass., home when Hurricane Gloria — the last hurricane to make landfall on Long Island — swept through in 1985.

Utility companies in Connecticut were preparing for possible power outages after the state struggled last year with extensive and long-lasting blackouts after Tropical Storm Isaias. Mr. Baker advised drivers to put off travel to Cape Cod, and to avoid being on the roads during the brunt of the storm.

The coastal areas of New York were readying for flooding, powerful winds and widespread debris, with the New York City Parks Department announcing that all city beaches would be closed to swimming on Sunday and on Monday because of the extreme conditions.

“We all need to take this storm extremely seriously,” the Massachusetts governor said at a news conference on Friday.

Officials were preparing in case Henri causes as much damage as Gloria or Hurricane Bob, which tore its way up the East Coast in 1991. More than a dozen people died in each storm.

Gloria was a Category 1 storm when it hit Long Island, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate, bringing down thousands of trees and leaving 1.5 million homes without power. Bob made landfall as a Category 2 storm, and millions more were affected by downed trees, power outages and flooding.

Boston’s Seaport District is too young to remember that lashing. Billions of dollars have been spent over the past 20 years to raise a financial and residential center from the mud flats and salt marshes along Boston Harbor. It still sits vulnerable at the head of major floodways, but on Friday bars and restaurants like Harpoon, Legal Sea Foods and Yankee Lobster had not made plans to close for Henri.

Farther east, in the Cape Cod community of Buzzards Bay, boats were being removed from the marina but little was being done to secure gas grills or deck chairs, said Peter Meier, a longtime resident.

Henri was expected to flood many areas already inundated from the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred. In Boston, officials said they were building barriers around the city’s most vulnerable subway station and would suspend some transit services on Sunday. Massachusetts saw heavy rains on Thursday that required emergency workers to retrieve people from cars caught in high water.

Hurricane Sandy flooded subway and highway tunnels in New York in 2012, knocking out power to much of Manhattan. But Sandy was a much larger storm, devastating an area from New Jersey to Connecticut, whose size drove a catastrophic surge of seawater into New York Harbor.

Henri is not expected to have the same impact, and passengers waiting to board the ferry from Boston to Provincetown on Friday night were cautiously optimistic that their plans would not be foiled.

Gary Livolsi said he had been through a lot of nor’easters and was content simply making sure the umbrellas and cushions were not left on his patio.

“I’m hoping they’re overestimating it, as they often do,” said Susan Mahoney, who was off to spend the weekend in Provincetown but was fully prepared to stay longer if necessary. “I brought extra wine.”

Reporting was contributed by Troy Closson, Michael Gold and Adam Sobel from New York, Colleen Cronin from Providence, R.I., Catherine McGloin from Boston, and Beth Treffeisen from Dennis, Mass.