Stretches of the northeast coastline specifically under the tropical storm warning Monday included Long Island from Fire Island Inlet to Port Jefferson Harbor and from New Haven, Connecticut, to Sagamore Beach, Block Island and MA, including Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.
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Having passed over North Carolina’s Outer Banks, the powerful and risky Hermine storm, which has claimed at least two lives in Florida and North Carolina, shook the U.S. Middle Atlantic Coast early Sunday, leading to high winds, heavy rains and surging seas and drawing nearer to NY and New Jersey.
Storm Hermine churned off the US Middle Atlantic Coast on Sunday, with forecasters projecting it may regain hurricane strength as it creeps north, spoiling the Labor Day holiday weekend with high winds, soaking rains and surging seas. He urged drivers to be careful on the roads – especially at the coast. Video courtesy Daniel Martinko. He says most rescue calls come in right before and after the storm moves out. But the water did not seep into any homes that she’s aware of. At this point, he said, no evacuations of the barrier islands are planned because state officials don’t see an immediate need for it. “But whenever severe weather is predicted, there is always an elevated sense of anxiety”.
The governor said the greatest impacts are expected in Cape May, Atlantic and Ocean counties, where a state of emergency was issued Saturday. Most business owners said they lost Labor Day weekend revenue Saturday, but were seeing signs that Sunday and Monday would be stronger than they hoped when they first heard a tropical storm was coming.
Hermine followed Largo, Florida resident Jim Linkin on his vacation to New Jersey, as the storm dumped approximately 12 inches of rain on Largo several days before he was sitting on Bradley Beach’s boardwalk waiting for the worst of the storm to hit there.
“I want to make this clear, this is certainly not Sandy and not even Jonas”, said Christie, flanked by Humvees and generators from the National Guard Armory in Morristown. “Something is going to happen”.
“The combination of a storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline”, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.
Field did warn that local residents should stay out of the water if they head to the beach over the holiday and into Tuesday and Wednesday, since Hermine is expected to linger a couple hundred miles off the coast and cause risky rip currents and surf. The drawbridge on U.S. Highway 64 over the Alligator River connects Tyrrell and Dare counties.
According to the National Hurricane Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Hermine is now churning off the SC coast and is expected to stall and possibly strengthen, before heading north in an uncertain track that could produce hurricane-like conditions in the Garden State. It has caused at least three deaths, inflicted widespread property damage and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people from Florida to Virginia.
On Sunday, Dominion Virginia Power said crews were working to restore power to about 5,000 customers in North Carolina and 1,500 in southeast Virginia.
Hermine had already struck Florida, North Carolina and Virginia hard during its journey to the Northeast, which began Friday.
Beach erosion is expected to be the biggest long-term issue as a result of this storm, WCBS 880’s Kelly Waldron reported.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management said on Twitter on Sunday that almost 80,000 utility customers were still without electricity.
At 11 a.m. Sunday, Hermine’s top sustained winds strengthened to 70 miles per hour (110 kph) as it moved east-northeast at 10 miles per hour (17 kph).
As of Sunday afternoon, the storm’s conditions are more akin to a moderate nor’easter, as it is taking longer to get to the city.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe warned Friday that people faced a strong possibility of “life-threatening” storm surges in coastal areas over the weekend.
We’ll continue to keep an eye on the storm throughout the week. “And it’s only the beginning”.
Hermine roared through communities along the Atlantic coast Saturday, battering beaches from the Outer Banks to the Delmarva Peninsula with blustery winds and rain.
High winds tipped over an 18-wheeler Saturday in North Carolina, killing its driver and shutting down the US 64 bridge in the state’s Outer Banks. A homeless man in Marion County, in the northern part of the state, died when a tree was ripped from the ground by high winds and fell on him.
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“If you weren’t in the flood prone area, it was like a normal day”, he said.
