Rain, Flooding Expected to Provide Biggest Impacts to Area From Tropical Storm
The lower Hudson Valley may have been spared a direct hit from Tropical Storm Henri, but officials are still warning residents to remain prepared for persistent rain and flooding in coastal and flood-prone areas.
It appears that Westchester and Putnam counties may avoid the highest and most damaging winds as the storm churned a bit farther to the east early Sunday afternoon, making landfall on coastal Rhode Island, rather than along the south shore of Long Island.
However, with at least of three inches of rain forecast through Monday, with locally higher amounts possible, the area may not entirely dodge the storm’s effects even if the tropical storm force winds do not reach Westchester and Putnam.
“Please do not be complacent by the fact that the storm is not making a direct hit on Westchester,” said Susan Spear, the county’s Emergency Services deputy commissioner. “Even though it’s not making a direct hit we will feel the impacts. We’ve seen this movie before; when you have strong winds and you have heavy rains you get power outages, you get roads closed and you get all of these impacts to your families and to individuals.”
Westchester County Executive George Latimer issued a state of emergency at about 8 a.m. Sunday, granting him the ability to authorize evacuations or road closures should that be necessary. A state of emergency was declared by Gov. Andrew Cuomo for 24 counties in New York on Saturday.
About a half-hour later, Latimer was part of a conference call with municipal leaders around the county, who are responsible for activating local shelters.
As of late Sunday morning, none of the municipalities had needed to open their shelters, he said.
“Take this message to heart,” Latimer said. “We want to be safe through all of this and come through the other side and go on with the rest of our lives and all the other things that are important to us.”
On Saturday, the county had announced the closure of all beaches and pools for Sunday and Playland amusement park.
Bee-Line buses continue to operate on a Sunday schedule and Metro-North’s Hudson and Harlem line trains are also running but with some reduced service.
The county’s Emergency Operations Center in Hawthorne was activated with state and Federal Emergency Management Agency representatives on hand.
With high tide on Sunday evening and rain totals expected to pile up into Monday, Sound Shore flooding was predicted.
“Our primary concern right now, as the county executive mentioned, is our rainfall totals,” said Dennis DelBaro, the county’s director of Westchester Office of Emergency Management. “We could be looking up to three inches of rain, with locally higher amounts associated with these outer rain bands from Henri.”
County Police Lt. Joseph Peters urged residents to stay home on Sunday and to stay off the roads. He warned never to drive through a flooded roadway, over downed power lines and trees and avoid areas that have barricades, flares or other obstructions set up by authorities.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
