According to weather forecasts, Hermine, which had turned into a hurricane-like storm with winds up to 70 miles per hour, would arrive off the New Jersey coast late on Sunday and into Monday after causing two deaths, severe property damages from Florida to Virginia on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.
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As it churned hundreds of miles off shore in the Atlantic Ocean, the system picked up strength, and forecasters said it could regain hurricane force later as it travels up the coast.
Optimistic that the threat from Hermine was waning Sunday night, Gov. Chris Christie directed that Island Beach State Park be reopened Monday at 9 a.m., but the governor noted state officials would closely monitor the storm’s track.
Rain and wind started hitting the DE coast Saturday, creating conditions that closed beaches in places such as Rehoboth and Dewey Beaches.
People posted pictures of flooding and high tides from North Carolina to Delaware. “Almost getting blown away from this storm on the boardwalk in Ocean City was so worth it for Dunkin Donuts”, Twitter user Jessica wrote from a Maryland resort town. “There is a danger of life-threatening inundation during the next 24 hours in the Hampton Roads area”, said the latest advisory from the hurricane center.
“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”.
Dennis Feltgen of the National Hurricane Center said Sunday “We’re not looking at a landfall”, adding Hermine is just sitting and pushing the water up along the coast making storm surge a great concern.
Virginia had 55,000 homes or businesses without power, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach reported downed trees and power outages across the cities and Norfolk was hit with up to 4 inches of rain, officials said.
Hermine’s position Monday morning about 260 miles southeast of Nantucket created 20-foot waves and wind gusts of up to 50 kph about 55 miles southeast of the island, Buttrick said.
The tropical storm, which has been veering east, is expected to bring strong winds, heavy, sustained rain and moderate-to-major coastal flooding.
Earlier in Florida, a homeless man died from a falling tree.
Labor Day weekend plans for vacationers headed to beaches along the Atlantic seaboard were dampened after the storm battered Florida’s $89 billion tourism industry.
The storm’s far distance from New Jersey has prompted the National Hurricane Center to lift the tropical storm warnings that had been in place for the entire Jersey Shore, Delaware Bay and Raritan Bay.
Knabb continued to tell CNN, “At a minimum, we’re going to have some beach erosion, rip currents and risky waves all the way from the south facing shores of New England, Cape Cod, Nantucket. down to the Hampton Roads area”.
At least 250,000 households were without power from Florida through Virginia, utility companies reported on Saturday.
Emergency declarations remained in effect for all or parts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.
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The storm will produce anywhere from 1 to 4 inches over eastern New Jersey through Monday morning, forecasters say. And Gov. Andrew Cuomo activated New York’s Emergency Operations Center. “Oh my God. My hands were white knuckles, and the water was so high”.
