“The stronger the wind is – even if it’s a little further offshore – but if it elevates back up to hurricane level that will still bring us very, very significant tidal surge, and that will mean more water on the barrier islands and that will more beach erosion”, Christie said. The storm was centered about 255 miles south-east of Ocean City, Maryland.
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It was expected to “meander slowly” off the mid-Atlantic region, moving north-northeast at only 3 mph (5 kph) and stay at least 300 miles (480 km) from shore before beginning to weaken by Monday night, the agency said. A tropical storm warning was in effect from north of Fenwick Island, Delaware, to Sagamore Beach, Massachusetts, including Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and Delaware Bay south of Slaughter Beach.
The first hurricane to hit Florida in more than a decade wiped away beachside buildings and toppled trees onto homes Friday before plowing inland on a path that could send it rolling up the densely populated East Coast.
In New Jersey, tropical storm-force winds could whip up on Monday, and record flooding remained a threat south of the Atlantic City area.
Governors all along the Eastern seaboard announced emergency preparations.
“Don’t be lulled by the nice weather”, Christie said, referring to the bright sunny skies along the Jersey Shore on Sunday afternoon. “Something is going to happen”.
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.
There is an elevated “threat to life and property” in relation to storm surges, according to the NWS warning, with the potential for the impacts to be felt around high tide at 2:40 p.m. Sunday and roughly every 12 hours thereafter into Tuesday.
Forecasters say the storm could dump up to almost 18 centimetres of rain over parts of Virginia and Maryland through Monday morning.
As of late Friday, about 30 million people along the US East Coast were under tropical storm watches and warnings through the weekend.
Virginia Beach also remained under a tropical storm warning, with the weather service saying that large and breaking waves and risky rip currents pose a threat to anyone who enters the surf.
In North Carolina, a tractor trailer overturned on a bridge over the Alligator River, killing the driver, Tyrrell County Sheriff Darryl Liverman said.
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.
“People from NY and New Jersey are kind of stuck here (during bad weather), so they can still come”, if forecasts don’t play out as predicted, Khan said.
Winds and rain were so strong Saturday in North Carolina that all bridges to the Outer Banks were closed for several hours following a deadly accident over the intracoastal waterway. In Florida, a homeless man in Marion County was hit by a falling tree and was killed.
Coastal areas will be impacted the most, Manzo says.
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Information for this article was contributed by Seth Borenstein, Jeffrey Collins, Tamara Lush, Bruce Shipkowski and Jeff Martin of The Associated Press and by Alan Blinder of The New York Times.
