In Virginia Beach, the weather service predicted large waves and rip currents that could endanger anyone who enters the surf.
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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. A tropical storm warning was in effect from New York’s Long Island to MA.
Overnight, the center of the storm moved farther east and away from the coast than previously forecast, said Rick Knabb, director of the National Hurricane Center (NHC), in a webcast.
It will meander off the mid-Atlantic coast for the next day or two, and after that, the storm is expected to move in a northeast direction again and head out to sea.
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON-Storm Hermine churned off the U.S. 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.
The system spun away from the East Coast on Sunday, removing the threat of heavy rain.
“Hermine could bring record coastal flooding but only if its peak storm surge aligns with high tide - which will already be a bit higher than normal thanks to the new moon”, Holthaus wrote. “While these impacts will not be as significant, they remain our biggest concern moving forward for this area”.
NY officials extended beach closures beyond Labor Day because of continued deadly rip currents, but some ignored the warnings.
Early Sunday morning, Hermine was centered about 240 miles southeast of Ocean City, Maryland, according to ABC News.
Storm Hermine roared through communities along the Atlantic coast, battering beaches from the Outer Banks to the Delmarva Peninsula with blustery winds and rain but sparing many areas inland. CT governor Daniel Malloy has ordered all state park campgrounds to be closed at noon today.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said officials were still on alert, especially on the state’s southern coast where he declared a state of emergency in three counties.
Michael Mann at Pennsylvania State University noted that the 1-foot sea-level rise in New York City over the past 100 years meant 25 more square miles flooded during Superstorm Sandy, causing billions in additional damage.
It has caused two deaths, inflicted widespread property damage and closed beaches as far north as NY. “I love my kids, but two days is a long time to be together in close spaces”, she said.
Hermine hit Florida as a hurricane on Friday, and on Sunday drifted further east than expected and was downgraded to a “post-tropical cyclone”.
The storm, which claimed at least two lives, in Florida and North Carolina, had sustained winds of almost 70 miles per hour. Warnings of potentially risky riptides temporarily cleared the water Monday, but a couple of dozen beachgoers and a handful of surfers returned to the water in Atlantic City by the afternoon. In North Carolina, a tractor trailer overturned on a bridge over the Alligator River, killing the driver. 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.
In Virginia Beach, Virginia, Seth Broudy, 45, owner of the Seth Broudy School of Surf, said high winds and tides flooded parking lots by his home on Saturday.
The couple, both in their 60s, said they knew the storm would blow over, even as friends texted their concerns. “And if your power was out, you kind of bounced around to find a restaurant or grocery store that still had power”.
Malloy said early Sunday morning he spoke with the state’s utility companies and with about 160 town and city officials in a statewide conference call.
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Long Island authorities urged people to evacuate the popular summer getaway of Fire Island to avoid any storm surge and coastal flooding.
