With Hurricane Henri fast approaching on Saturday afternoon, Suffolk County officials called on visitors and residents of Fire Island, which lies on the southern shore of Long Island, to voluntarily evacuate before landfall.
“If they do not leave the island today, they will be stuck,” warned Steven Bellone, the county executive.
Mr. Bellone said that ferry travel off the island was scheduled to end at 10:40 p.m. on Saturday and that there would be no service on Sunday, when Henri is expected to make landfall as a Category 1 storm.
By 6 p.m., Edwin Pabon, 51, a barber and a partner at Handsome, a barbershop in The Pines section of the island, was on a packed ferry on his way home to Manhattan. The ferries had been full since early morning, he said.
Mr. Pabon was taking precautions closing his shop and heading to Manhattan, but he felt that the response was overblown.
“I am not scared of a hurricane. I am from Puerto Rico, I grew up with hurricanes, my island got hit by hurricane Maria and this is a Category 1,” the lowest level storm, he said. “I feel like people need to relax a little.”
He was most concerned as to whether the extensive sand berms and dunes built by the Army Corps of Engineers to shore up the island after Hurricane Sandy, would hold. “God forbid it does get bad, even if it is a Category 1, and your house is there.”
When Tropical Storm Isaias tore through the region last summer, Mr. Bellone said, Long Island saw more than 600,000 power outages — and that storm did not make a direct hit.
Scott Hirsch, the longtime owner of the Island Mermaid in Ocean Beach, a section of Fire Island, said the restaurant began to shut down early Saturday. “It’s not our first time at the dance here with stuff like this,” Mr. Hirsch said, before adding, “This one’s running on a scarier pattern.”
The storm is expected to bring heavy rain and possible flooding to cities and towns across the region, including in New York City, the Hudson Valley area, northern New Jersey and the Connecticut coast.
On Saturday night, a concert in Central Park celebrating the city’s emergence from the pandemic was abruptly halted when lightning appeared, marking the arrival of the storm’s outer bands. An announcement urged concertgoers to leave “quickly and calmly” because of severe weather.
Earlier on Saturday, one of his final days in office, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said he was worried that because of fast-changing forecasts, there was less time for both officials and residents to prepare.
“I understand we didn’t have the buildup that we had with Superstorm Sandy,” Mr. Cuomo said, noting that New Yorkers have had only a day of warnings. “Don’t be deceived by that. It’s because the trajectory of the storm changed.”
The governor said that New Yorkers should expect flight cancellations, and that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was preparing to cancel some Long Island Rail Road service by midnight on Saturday.
In New York City, officials warned of possible dangerous storm surges in parts of the Bronx and northern Queens. The city suspended outdoor dining and closed beaches for swimming for Sunday, and Mayor Bill de Blasio urged residents to postpone other unnecessary travel. “I’m telling all New Yorkers: Stay home tomorrow,” he said.
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