Sunday afternoon was sunny, with highs in the mid-70s, even as the tropical storm crashed against the coastline and promised to ruin Labor Day beach plans for vacationers at beaches from Virginia to MA.
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A tropical storm warning remains in effect for the Delaware and New Jersey coasts and Delaware Bay.
What’s left of Hermine will continue to meander off the East Coast for the next few days. Video courtesy Daniel Martinko.
Like an unwelcome guest who doesn’t want to leave, post-tropical cyclone Hermine continues to linger in the Atlantic Ocean on Labor Day morning, packing winds of 70 mph and moving very slowly northward, several hundred miles off the coast of Maryland.
High pressure will move east from the Appalachian Mountains and a cold front will work to push the storm further out to sea, said Jim Bunker, observing program leader at the National Weather Service forecast office in Mt. Holly. It has claimed the lives of at least two people, knocked out power to thousands and inflicted widespread property damage. It spawned a tornado in North Carolina and closed beaches as far north as NY.
Even as Hermine weakens, wind gusts of 30 to 50 miles per hour were expected across southern Rhode Island and southeastern MA on Monday, Buttrick said.
Hermine first made landfall in Florida early Friday as a Category 1 hurricane, before weakening to a tropical storm.
Now considered a post-tropical cyclone, Hermine’s top sustained winds remained at 65 miles per hour this morning, as it moved east-northeast at 13 miles per hour.
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.
Gusty winds and possible coastal flooding remain the top concerns as Hermine churns over the Atlantic Ocean.
Governors all along the Eastern Seaboard announced emergency preparations. Residents in states as far north as CT are expected to feel its damaging impact.
Storm Hermine is regaining power as it moves up the USA eastern seaboard, threatening the north-east with risky coastal surges.
Pennsylvania State University geosciences professor Michael Mann told the Guardian, “We are already experiencing more and more flooding due to climate change in every storm”. “And it’s only the beginning”. The drawbridge on U.S. Highway 64 over the Alligator River connects Tyrrell and Dare counties. In Florida, a homeless man in Marion County was hit by a falling tree and was killed.
Dominion Virginia Power said crews were working to restore power to about 5,000 customers in North Carolina and 1,500 in southeast Virginia.
Virginia Beach resident, Seth Broudy, speaking to Reuters news agency about the coastal conditions on Saturday, said: “Right now it’s rough as hell”.
“This weekend would normally be a parking lot”, said Jim Derrick.
Hermine’s path is seen here.
A legacy of Hermine, Boston may get light showers Sunday night and into Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
Further south in Cape May, New Jersey, tourists fled during rainstorms on Saturday only to have the weather improve. And Amtrak cancelled or altered some service as the storm approached.
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“We’re on the job and watching how things are going”, Christie said, adding sheltering has been arranged and is available if necessary.
