Tropical Storm Henri slammed into southern New England on Sunday with heavy rain and winds leading to thousands of power outages in Connecticut, Rhode Island and parts of Massachusetts.

Henri made landfall near Westerly, R.I., around 12:30 p.m. Sunday, the National Weather Service reported, and later slowed down over the area with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.

As of 4 p.m. Sunday, Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES) was reporting 29,277 out of its 1.28 million customers in Connecticut were without power, mainly concentrated east of the Connecticut River. National Grid said there were 72,438 outages in Rhode Island, including 49,050 in Washington County, where Westerly is located. Between National Grid and Eversource in Massachusetts, about 12,000 were without power in their respective service territories. United Illuminating (UI), which serves the greater New Haven and Bridgeport areas of Connecticut, had just two outages out of its more than 340,000 customers.

At a press conference Saturday, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said Eversource and UI assured state officials that they had doubled the number of workers on the ground to restore potential power outages after their inadequate response during Tropical Storm Isaias, which was primarily a wind event, last August. Connecticut also received a pre-landfall presidential emergency declaration to provide the state with federal assistance in anticipation of the impacts of the storm.

Eversource, UI Plan for Major Outages

Eversource said it would declare level 2 of its emergency response plan on Sunday at 6 a.m. to prepare for up to 69% of customers in Connecticut losing power during the storm. That restoration work could last anywhere from eight to 21 days in that scenario, the utility said. Eversource tweeted Sunday that, “at this point, we expect to be on the lower end of the range. This means we do not expect a 21-day restoration effort.”

Eversource initially expected outages to as many as 50% of its customers on Friday but revised its projections upward after multiple weather forecasts and the University of Connecticut’s Outage Prediction Model showed high winds and heavy rain, potential storm surge along the shoreline and flooding in communities across the state. In addition, trees already weakened because of insects and saturated soil from recent thunderstorms could also come down by the thousands, complicating restoration work.

To facilitate restoration efforts, Eversource has 4,000 field crews, between its workers and outside contractors from as far away as Canada, positioned in cities and towns across Connecticut and at multiple staging areas across the state, including the Pratt & Whitney airfield in East Hartford.

Eversource and UI were forced to make changes in the wake of Isaias by the Take Back Our Grid Act, which directed the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) to develop and implement performance-based regulations, including fines and reduced returns on equity. After releasing an April assessment of Eversource’s storm performance, PURA recently finalized a $28.6 million civil penalty and annual profit reductions of about $31 million against the company. The utility has appealed the ROE reduction in state court.

In June, in preparation for Tropical Storm Elsa, which produced heavy rain and wind but not widespread power outages and restoration problems, Eversource brought in 500 extra line crews and tree-trimming teams and prepositioned them with its 700 line crews and 250 tree teams. There was also an online portal for cities and towns to prioritize repair sites for Eversource’s teams. Eversource CEO Joe Nolan said it was “a good exercise” for the utility to show that “a lot of things have changed for our business.” (See Eversource Focuses on Connecticut amid Appeal of Penalties.)

UI, a subsidiary of Avangrid (NYSE:AGR), said it also had doubled the size of its field crews ahead of the storm, including line workers, tree trimming and damage assessment teams. UI will also pre-stage crews throughout its service territory to limit travel to damaged locations.

PURA Chair Marissa Gillett said during a press conference with Lamont on Sunday that the proactively deployed damage assessors from Eversource and UI, which state regulators mandated after investigating the Isaias response, will be working “as soon as safe to do so” to speed up restoration efforts. That work will focus on essential safety activities such as removing downed wires and working with municipalities to clear blocked roads.

ISO-NE said it is monitoring the storm’s path and its impact on the region’s power system. In addition, the RTO issued a precautionary operational alert on Friday in advance of the storm. It also activated its emergency preparedness plans, including increased staffing, and will remain in regular communication with Eversource, UI, generators and other resource owners throughout the storm.