Downed trees and power lines block the road after Hurricane Hermine blows through Tallahassee, Florida September 2, 2016.Phil Sears/ReutersHermine battered Florida on Friday, then turned its attention to the rest of the East Coast.
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As Tropical Storm Hermine heads through the heart of SC, forecasters there are calling for a swath of 5-7 inches of rain over the next 24 hours, with 2-5 inches expected across the state’s coast.
Any Labor Day weekend plans that included a beach trip may have to be changed for residents living in coastal areas from Virginia to CT as Tropical Storm Hermine slowly churns its way northward, forecasters say.
Hermine arrived about 1:30 a.m. EDT Friday at Florida’s Big Bend area and carved a path between Tampa and the Panhandle with hurricane-force winds and torrential rains.
Hurricane Hermine has wreaked havoc across Florida, knocking out power to almost 300,000 homes and businesses, flooding low-lying areas and raising concerns about the spread of the Zika virus from pools of standing water left behind.
Warnings remained in effect for parts of Florida, Georgia and up to the Carolinas as the storm sprinted north.
The National Hurricane Centre said the storm’s top sustained winds clocked 130km/h.
Along with the storm’s destruction, Labor Day weekend worries included rough seas, unsafe surf and strong storm surge up the coast as far north as CT.
“Anyone along the U.S. East Coast needs to be paying close attention this weekend”, center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said.
All of New York City was placed under a tropical storm watch just moments before the mayor addressed the public.
High waves and heavy rain also are forecast for Long Island and New York City on Sunday evening.
The system was forecast to strengthen back into a hurricane by Monday morning off the Maryland-Delaware coast before weakening again as it moves north. The storm is forecast to intensify somewhat as it transitions to a Post-Tropical Cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 65 miles per hour.
Scott also said since the state experienced heavy rains, residents need to take precautions against creating breeding areas for mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus.
“We’ll probably stay inside watching movies or going to the movie theater”, Joan Whalen told an ABC affiliate in Virginia after canceling plans to head to the beach for the weekend.
It was the first hurricane in the state in over a decade. It swept across the Everglades and struck heavily populated south Florida, causing five deaths in the state and an estimated US$23 billion ($31.5b) in damage.
The storm is expected to anchor itself 200 miles off the coast of DE after it passes through North Carolina Saturday night.
Governor Larry Hogan declared a pre-emptive state of emergency for the entire Eastern Shore and Calvert, St. Mary’s and Charles counties west of the Chesapeake Bay.
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Asheboro, southeastern Greensboro and Lexington were predicted to get about 1 inch of rain from the storm, he said.
