Lamont Lifts Ban On Motorcycles, Tractor Trailers On I-95

CONNECTICUT — Gov. Ned Lamont has lifted the travel ban on all empty tractor trailers, tandem tractor trailers, and motorcycles on Interstate 95 that he had imposed earlier on Sunday.

The ban went into effect at 11:00 a.m., and was lifted effective 5:00 p.m.

Eversource had been bracing for the potential that between 500,000 and 750,000 Connecticut customers could lose power for days due to Henri, with restoration efforts possibly lasting between eight and 21 days. That threat never materialized.

Instead, the weather event was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm before it even made landfall in Rhode Island, further east — and further away from Connecticut — than originally anticipated.

The storm was demoted even further shortly after 5:00 p.m., when all tropical storm warnings were cancelled by the National Weather Service.

While Henri won't produce the power outages initially feared, the rain is a different story. Several inches have fallen already in southeast Connecticut, and several inches are still expected across the state Sunday and Monday

State officials are urging residents to stay off the roads to the greatest extent possible until the storm has completely passed.