New Hampshire may see its first hurricane in three decades on Sunday, with extremely high storm surge along the coast and heavy rainfall inland the immediate concern, along with high winds and even the possibility of some tornados spinning off from the main storm.
The state’s office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management will be releasing information later Friday about preparations. The region’s electric utilities have cautioned customers to be prepared for outages.
As of mid-morning Friday, Hurricane Henri was moving north from a position off the Georgia coast, about 800 miles south of Cape Cod. Its exact path was still uncertain but landfall is projected Sunday afternoon somewhere along the coast of Connecticut, Rhode Island or possibly eastern Massachusetts. Heavy rain and winds are expected to last at least through Monday and possibly longer as the center of the storm moved east through Maine.
The storm will probably be a Category 1 hurricane when it hits land, which would make it the first official hurricane to reach land here since Hurricane Bob, a Category 2 hurricane that landed almost exactly 30 years ago: Aug. 19, 1991. It’s possible that Henri’s wind speeds will have weakened to the point that it is classified as a tropical storm rather than a hurricane.
Also uncertain is how slowly Henri will move through New England, which can make a major difference in how much flooding it causes. Heavy rains will be more of a concern because soils are already saturated and creeks and rivers full following Thursday’s heavy rains caused by the remnants of tropical storm Fred.
As of Friday rainfall totals of 2 to 5 inches were expected in Southern New England with isolated totals up to 8 inches, but amounts expected in inland New Hampshire, including the Concord region, were much less certain.
Hurricane Bob remains the most expensive hurricane to ever hit New England, although many non-hurricane Nor’easters have done more damage. It killed 15 people nationwide but none in New Hampshire, where it caused thousands of coastal residents to flee their homes and knocked out power to tens of thousands more.