“Even though the current track shows the storm moving further east, Hermine is still a factor, and New Yorkers should continue to be prepared”, said Mayor de Blasio.
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Hermine spun away from the East Coast on Sunday, removing the threat of heavy rain but maintaining enough power to whip up risky waves and rip currents and keep beaches off-limits to disappointed swimmers and surfers during the Labor Day weekend.
“Tropical storm Hermine is once again gaining strength, the U.S. National Weather Service said Sunday, posing a “danger of life-threatening inundation” from New Jersey to CT”.
“My No. 1 concern is the risky rip currents we are going to experience”, the mayor said in a statement.
“Out of an abundance of caution for concertgoers, staff and the bands, and everyone else involved, we have chose to cancel this weekend’s beach concerts”, Guardian said in a statement issued Friday night.
The storm is expected to remain near hurricane strength on Monday before weakening by Tuesday morning.
At 11 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Hermine’s center was about 325 miles (523 km) southeast of Long Island, the eastern tip of NY, the hurricane center said.
Gov. Chris Christie holds a news conference Sunday to discuss preparations.
The storm, which claimed at least two lives, in Florida and North Carolina, is expected to stall off the coast of New Jersey and other major population centers in the Northeast for several days, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). But for now its strongest winds were extending outward by about 230 miles, failing to reach US shores, the NHC said. “The state of NY is very broad and vast and a number of counties in the city of NY”.
At 5 p.m. Sunday, Hermine’s top sustained winds were steady at 70 miles per hour (110 kph) as it moved east-northeast at 5 miles per hour (7 kph). This will continue to bring the threat of coastal flooding during high tides, beach erosion and risky rip currents.
“We are already experiencing more and more flooding due to climate change in every storm”, said Michael Oppenheimer, a geosciences professor at Princeton University.
The storm threw bands of heavy rain toward coastal regions Saturday, causing isolated flooding in low-lying areas. Hermine should remain at or near hurricane strength for the next day, and begin to weaken by Monday evening. At sea, the rough waters rocked a Royal Caribbeancruise ship headed from New Jersey to Bermuda.
Insurers could suffer a $500m loss from hurricane Hermine which swept across Florida on 2 September, according to estimates from catastrophe loss modelling firm Karen Clark & Company (KCC).
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On Friday the storm passed near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, leaving some 51,000 power outages across the state, said state emergency management spokesman Derrec Becker.
