News 12 meteorologists say the projected track of Hermine shifted a bit east overnight, but the potential remains for Westchester’s Sound Shore to see coastal flooding and strong, gusty winds late Sunday into Monday and Tuesday.
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Hermine, technically a “post-tropical cyclone”, was already blamed for two deaths and was still threatening to regain hurricane force Monday, the National Weather Service said.
Hermine continued Monday to twist hundreds of miles off shore in the Atlantic Ocean and was expected to keep swimmers and surfers out of beach waters because of its risky waves and rip currents on the last day of the long holiday weekend.
It will continue to be a powerful storm as it turns to the northwest by Sunday night, and northeast by Tuesday.
Hermine’s center was expected to remain offshore, but it still was a large storm with tropical storm force winds stretching about 205 miles from its center. NY officials extended beach closures beyond Labor Day because of continued deadly rip currents.
Though a hit into the New Jersey shore is not expected her effects will be felt along the coast with moderate tidal flooding at times of high tide Sunday night through Monday night.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said during a Sunday afternoon news briefing that he didn’t see the need for evacuations from the shore yet, but “we are prepared if things wobble west”.
Since sea levels have risen to a foot because of global warming, the storm surges pushed by Hermine could be even more damaging, climate scientists say.
The storm claimed at least two lives, in Florida and North Carolina, but the widespread power outages and flooding that battered Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas had yet to materialize farther north, where alarming news reports scared many tourists away from the beach on Sunday.
Surge: A 2 to 3-foot storm surge is likely along the Nantucket, East and South coasts, with a 1 to 2-foot storm surge elsewhere during Monday’s high tides.
Governors along the Eastern Seaboard announced emergency preparations.
As of 11 a.m. EDT Monday, Hermine’s top sustained winds were steady at 70 miles per hour (110 kph) as it moved northwest at 6 miles per hour (9 kph).
In North Carolina, a trucker was killed when his rig overturned Saturday because of high winds on a bridge. The third reported death was that of a man struck by a auto on a SC highway on Friday as he tried to move a fallen tree, a Colleton County fire department spokesman said.
Elsewhere along Hermine’s path, people were having decidedly less fun.
Hermine’s stiff winds and unsafe rip currents threatened eastern Massachusetts Monday, while cruise ship passengers were reeling from a wild ride in rough seas.
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“We are on the job and we are watching how things are going”, Christie said.
