“Unless it makes a turn back west. we’re going to be looking at moderate flooding rather than a very severe impact”, Christie told CBS News.Hermine, the first hurricane to make landfall in Florida in 11 years, swept ashore on Friday near the town of St. Marks with winds of 80 miles per hour, knocking out power for 300,000 Florida homes and businesses.
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The South Shore could also see a damaging storm surge from the storm, and a tropical-storm warning was issued for Rhode Island and the south coast of MA.
“Rainfall will be locally heavy – expecting 1-2” of rain for the Cape and Islands, dropping off to under an inch in Boston and nearly nothing North of MA.
“We continue to watch Hermine very carefully and stand ready to address any impacts to our system”, Clarke said.
The National Hurricane Center maintained its tropical storm watch for Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket and said risky storm surges would continue along the coast from Virginia to New Jersey. He directed that Island Beach State Park be reopened Monday at 9 a.m. but he noted state officials would closely monitor Hermine’s track.
Hermine is expected to stall off New England, churning up rough surf and risky rip currents at beaches on the South Coast, Cape, and islands through at least mid-week, the NWS said.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said during a Sunday afternoon news briefing that he didn’t see the need for evacuations from the shore yet, but “we are prepared if things wobble west”. The cancellation of two concerts due to the weather kept a lot of people away, Islam said.
Round 1 of the wind will move in during the overnight and is expect to stick around through Labor Day afternoon. Local beaches are closed to swimming, surfing, and bathing today, and moderate coastal flooding is still possible.
Malloy said the Tropical Storm will likely have minimal impact on the state but coastal flooding during high tide, risky rip currents, strong winds of up to 35 miles per hour could hit the state Sunday night into Monday. The storm was centered about 325 miles (525 km) southeast of the eastern tip of Long Island, New York.
Fire Island is a thin strip of land off of Long Island’s southern shore that is a popular summer destination.
The winds, of up to 70 miles per hour, could also cause power outages, according to the NWS. But most people were cleaning up trees and branches felled by the storm.
Hermine had already struck Florida, North Carolina and Virginia hard during its journey to the Northeast, which began Friday.
Governors all along the coast announced emergency preparations.
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Earlier in Florida, a homeless man died from a falling tree. A surge is a rise of water above a predicted tide, pushed by high winds, and is often the greatest threat to life from a storm, according to national weather officials. In North Carolina, a tractor trailer overturned on a bridge over the Alligator River, killing the driver.
