Jersey Shore revelers and residents shouldn’t let a sunny Sunday fool them, forecasters say – post-tropical storm Hermine remains an imminent threat lurking just offshore. The storm, expected to turn northward on Sunday, was centered about 205 miles southeast of Ocean City, Maryland.
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The East Coast continues to face a mix of dangerously high winds and heavy rains, they say.
US East Coast states are on alert for the strong storm pushing north-eastward as people take time off for the long holiday weekend.
Leon County – located in the northwestern part of the state at the top of the Big Bend – reported the most outages – 19% of its customers had no power. The storm is now moving through North Carolina and into Virginia Saturday morning. The storm is expected to dump several inches of rain in parts of coastal Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and NY as the Labor Day weekend continues.
Federal officials in NY are investigating an emergency alert system after a mistakenly truncated message about storm system Hermine wrongly advised TV watchers on Long Island of an ordered evacuation, authorities said Sunday. Governors all along the coast announced emergency preparations.
New York City planned to close its beaches Monday because of rip currents, and the ban could extend into Tuesday, depending on weather conditions, officials said.
The National Hurricane Center said waves as high as 10 to 14 feet are possible.
Atlantic storm Hermine, which has killed two people, lurked off the middle of the U.S. East Coast late on Sunday while threatening to regain hurricane strength, after having spared the region the brunt of its wind, rain and tidal surge. Meanwhile, in Virginia, strong winds ripped the siding off a building in Virginia Beach Saturday.
“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’s latest fatality occurred when winds estimated between 60 to 70 mile per hour blew an 18-wheeler across highway lanes in North Carolina and propelled the cab into the railing of a bridge, killing the unidentified driver, Tyrrell County Sheriff Darryl Liverman told AFP.
One person died Saturday when a tractor-trailer overturned while crossing a bridge in eastern North Carolina amid high winds from Tropical Storm Hermine, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Public Safety, Michael Baker, said.
Tree limbs, garbage cans, yard debris, or other materials that can be moved by the wind are potential projectiles aimed at your home or parked vehicle.
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Amtrak cancelled or altered some service as the storm approached.
