Out to sea, Hermine is expected to regain hurricane-force winds – about 75 miles per hour – sometime during the remainder of the holiday weekend, although the National Weather Service will not officially call it a hurricane.
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Elizabeth Brister, 23, saw her Labor Day weekend plans in “A.C.” blow away in the wind.
An exception was New York City, which said all public beaches would be closed through Tuesday because of “life-threatening” rip currents generated by Hermine.
Hermine is tracking back towards the north-east coast of the U.S. after heading out to sea on Sunday and Monday. Rain prompted about 100 people to evacuate and damaged homes in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan, the Associated Press reported.
Other states of Georgia, Carolinas, and Virginia also faced massive power outages and infrastructure damages from flooding.
Speaking at a campaign rally Tuesday in Tampa, the Democratic presidential nominee warned of the “threat” of climate change and the “havoc” being wrought by weather that reportedly caused Hurricane Hermine. A northward turn is still expected over the next day which will bring some rainy and windy weather into southern New England. “Rough seas will bring heavy surf to the coast of Essex County [and] bring a moderate to high risk of rip currents to much of the MA and Rhode Island coastline”.
A tropical storm warning remains in effect Tuesday from Long Island to MA.
Nevertheless, the US National Weather Service is advising that minor coastal flooding, battering waves and beach erosion could affect New York, New Jersey and CT until Wednesday night, before the storm pulls away from the coast and dissipates.
Early Monday, the storm was 105 miles south of the eastern tip of Long Island. Meteorologist Margaret Curtis from the National Weather Service said the forecast calls for more dry weather this week in northern New England.
Governors all along the Eastern Seaboard announced emergency preparations.
The New York Post said police issued $80 tickets to at least four surfers at Rockaway Beach.
Tropical-storm-force winds extend from the center as far as 230 miles, with maximum sustained winds near 70 mph and even higher gusts.
An emergency worker who dived into the Atlantic at Coney Island to save a swimmer who violated the ban told the newspaper the current felt like a “300-pound guy pulling me back out to sea”.
Mahabub Khan, a cart peddler who works the Jersey Shore, said the crowds were noticeably smaller this year after Hermine warnings reached the hurricane level.
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The last hurricane to strike Florida was Hurricane Wilma, which entered the state from along southwest Gulf coast as a major Category 3 storm on October 24, 2005.
