Hermine will likely become a non-tropical low by this weekend and will hover near or off the Mid-Atlantic or Northeast seaboard, potentially resulting in strong winds, coastal flooding and other impacts. Forty-nine cases of local transmission have been reported in the Florida.
Advertisement
“We’ve dodged bullet after bullet after bullet”, Duffy said, but added that Hermine has taken “dead aim” at the city, where blustery winds sent trees swaying before dawn.
Winds gusted up to around 70 miles (110 kilometers) per hour and heavy rain caused flooding and power cuts to tens of thousands as the storm moved northeast inland at around 14 miles per hour, said the NHC.
Hermine was downgraded to a tropical storm before sunrise as winds dropped to 70 miles per hour as it moved into southern Georgia. “We’re going to see landfall about 2 a.m”.
According to the BBC, weather officials predicted that Hermine will also hit Georgia and the Carolinas, and could bring heavy rains along the East Coast in the coming days.
Some residents needed hospital treatment for injuries sustained by high winds knocking down trees onto their homes. It could also take an inland track, which would weaken the storm and cause rain, high surf and some coastal flooding.
As the storm moves east, the Weather Underground’s WunderBlog says rainfall could total 6 to 10 inches across broad swaths of the Southeast, with isolated areas getting as much as 15 inches.
Hermine has been upgraded to hurricane.
Georgia Power reports that more than 30,000 of its customers were without power shortly before dawn Friday as Hermine rolls across the southern section of the state. Communities as far south as Tampa shut roads due to flooding. Taylor County Commissioner Jody DeVane said several homes were damaged.
City beaches will be closed Sunday – and possibly Labor Day – amid concerns that Tropical Storm Hermine will generate highly risky rip tides, Mayor de Blasio said Friday.
Dustin Beach, 31, rushed to Keaton Beach on Friday from a hospital in Tallahassee where his wife had given birth Thursday night to a girl. Major cities that are at risk of flooding include Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida. “It’s a home on stilts so I put everything upstairs”.
“I’ve never seen [the coastal waves] this high, it’s pretty damn insane”, she said.
Advertisement
Some areas of southern Georgia are expected to see up to 10 inches of rain, with between 4 and 10 inches in the Carolinas by Sunday, when Hurricane Hermine will be moving through those areas. Jacksonville firefighters install storm shutters at Jacksonville Fire and Rescue’s Ladder Company Four in advance of Tropical Storm Hermine Thursday Sept. 1, 2106 in Jacksonville, Fla.
