© Craig Ruttle / APPassersby walk along the Promenade in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood as rain and clouds loom over lower Manhattan on the fifth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017, in New York.
The result is a nor'easter-type storm producing high wind and rain for parts of eastern New York and New England late Sunday into Monday. CNN forecasters anticipate Philippe will move into the western Atlantic Ocean by Monday afternoon. The storm formed near western Cuba a few days ago, the the National Hurricane Center said.
Early Sunday, it was racing up the Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast, moving away from Florida at about 31 mph, with sustained winds of about 50 mph. By Sunday afternoon, Philippe had merged with a front along the East Coast, the center said, canceling watches and warnings. About 45 million people in the Northeast are currently under a Flash Flood Watch.
Philippe was not expected to become a hurricane. But it is expected to drench the region with average rainfall totals of 4-6 inches, and up to 10 inches in isolated areas of the Northeast and New England, forecasters said. By Sunday evening, power outages in the Northeastern states ranged from more than 70,000 customers out in Connecticut to just over 8,000 customers out in Maine. Customers without electricity in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts and Maine totaled more than 247,000, according to utility companies.
Superstorm Sandy hit New Jersey and New York five years ago Sunday. The storm soaked the Bahamas, Cuba and South Florida over the weekend before moving up the coast. "This is not going to be the equivalent of Sandy. We would hardly see that or expect anything like that, but we are expecting very some very gusty winds, heavy downpours, considerable power outages," said CNN meteorologist Karen Maginnis.
CNN's Joe Sutton, Judson Jones and Steve Almasy contributed to this report.
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Update:
It is reported that 1.2 million people are without power following the storm, which forced hundreds of school closures in northern New England. The New England area appeared to get the brunt of the storm, which brought sustained winds of up to 50 mph in some spots, with a gust of 82 mph reported in Mashpee on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
A spokesman for New Hampshire Electric Cooperative, told reporters, "I think if you're without power at this time, you should expect to remain without power, possibly for a number of days."