Tropical storm watches and warnings were in effect from Virginia to MA, with special concern focused on New Jersey and DE, where Rehoboth Beach could experience gusts up to 50 miles per hour and life-threatening storm surges during high tide late Sunday and into Monday.
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Speaking at a campaign rally Tuesday in Tampa, the Democratic presidential nominee warned of the “threat” of climate change and the “havoc” being wrought by weather that reportedly caused Hurricane Hermine.
The storm, which crossed northern Florida and then moved up the Georgia and the Carolina coasts, was packing sustained surface winds of up to 70 miles per hour with higher gusts, the National Weather Service said.
Hermine continued to nudged northwest moving within 150 miles of Montauk Point bringing wind and some rain across sections of Long Island. Last February at least four people were hurt when the ship hit hurricane-force winds off North Carolina, prompting the crew to turn the vessel around and return to port in New Jersey.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency for 12 counties along the Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland.
NY officials have extended beach closures beyond Labor Day because of risky rip currents.
The hurricane center said that the threat of tropical storm force winds reaching the coast had lessened, and the agency chose to cease advisories on the system, which made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast last Friday as a Category 1 hurricane.
Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Tuesday have ranged from a morning low of 24 degrees at Jackson, Wyo.to a midday high of 98 degrees at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airpo, Ariz. Tropical storm Hermine was predicted to hit the area hard over Labor Day.
Breaking the decade-long period of no Florida hurricane landfalls since 2005 – the longest period without a landfall prior to the past decade was six years – Hermine made landfall near Saint Marks, Florida early September 2.
Tropical Storm Fay, a strong and unusual tropical storm that moved slowly and erratically across Florida in 2008, causing widespread flooding and damage across the state.
SURF: The main reason we’re still under a tropical storm warning is due to the risky surf conditions. In the northern Florida town of Ocala, a falling tree killed a homeless man sleeping in his tent. Meanwhile, warnings have dropped for North Carolina. He say’s if the beach is packed, business tends to be pretty good. But he said he did not know of any buildings that were actually flooded.
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On Sunday afternoon, he said, a few homes still lacked power. Depending on the course of the currents, swimming areas might be restricted later in the day. But most people were cleaning up trees and branches felled by the storm.
