Tropical Storm Warning For Union County As Hurricane Henri Nears

UNION COUNTY, NJ — The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for all of Union County through Monday morning as well as a tropical storm warning for eastern Union County due to Hurricane Henri, which may make landfall on Long Island and New England this weekend.

See Westfield's alert and guidance from Saturday for Hurricane Henri.

See Cranford's alert and guidance from Saturday afternoon for Hurricane Henri.

The forecast calls for "tropical storm conditions" Saturday night through all of Sunday in Union County, with as much as five inches of rain falling Sunday. See the forecast for the Union County area here.

Track the storm with these maps from the National Hurricane Center:

• Tropical Storm Henri storm path
• Arrival time of tropical storm-force winds

Read Patch coverage:

• Tropical Storm Henri Shifts West, May Impact New Jersey
• Tropical Storm Henri Could Hit NYC This Weekend
• Long Island Needs To Prepare For Henri: FEMA

Area officials released this guidance during past storms:

• Residents should secure all furniture and loose objects outside or bring them inside, especially on balconies. Outdoor tents should be taken down depending on wind load.
• Damaging winds could blow down trees and power lines, resulting in power outages. Please report power outages and downed wires to PSEG at https://nj.myaccount.pseg.com/....
• Do not park in or drive through flooding prone areas.

While some may consider flash floods just an inconvenience, these floods have proved fatal to drivers (sometimes trapping parents and children) and people near even small streams.

Severe storms are becoming more frequent. In fact, Hurricane Elsa in July 2021 was the earliest E-named storm in modern weather history.

Cable Company Guidance

On Tuesday, one cable company in North Jersey, Optimum, released guidance:

"With Tropical Storms Fred, Grace and Henri making their way up the coast, we want to remind you of the resources available to you and assure you we are prepared for storm-related outages.

"While some outages cannot be prevented as they’re caused by downed wires and power lines, our fully staffed teams are standing by to assist our customers if there are any storm-related outages as soon as it is safe to do so. If unpreventable service outages do occur, restoring your Optimum service is always our top priority. We have made sure that our generators are checked and ready in case of any extended power outages."

How you can prepare:
• Have all your devices charged and ready.
• If you haven't yet signed up for text message alerts, do it now so you get the latest information right to your phone. Sign up for text message alerts.
• Have your Optimum ID ready so you can quickly log in to your account, check for service status updates, and find online support.
• Don't have an Optimum ID? Create One
• Can't remember your Optimum ID or password? Get a reminder
• Make sure your profile is up to date:
• Verify contact information and enroll in "Service Alerts" on the
My Profile page
• Add important email accounts to mobile devices and tablets using
these easy-to-follow instructions; Apple Devices, Samsung Devices.
• Follow us on Social Media:
• Twitter – @OptimumHelp
• Facebook – Optimum

Want breaking news when it happens in your Union County town? Sign up for occasional breaking news alerts, and/or get a free daily newsletter at 6 a.m. each morning with local news. Sign up with your preferences here.

Got news? Email caren.lissner@patch.com. Got photos? Please include express written permission from the photographer for us to use them. To be the first to get free news alerts with breaking stories in your town, or to get a free local newsletter each morning, sign up for Patch breaking news alerts or daily newsletters.