Because of concerns about rough seas, unsafe surf and strong storm surge, no swimming was allowed on NY beaches Sunday.
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New York City officials have extended beach closures beyond Labor Day because of continued deadly rip currents caused by storm system Hermine.
The improved forecast for New Jersey spurred Republican Gov. Chris Christie to reopen Island Beach State Park on Monday, though it was likely that beachgoers would still be kept out of the water because of the rough waters and rip currents.
“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.
Hermine has killed two people since striking the Florida coast as a hurricane on Friday, September 2, before weakening to tropical-storm status as it moved northward off the US East Coast.
While the forecast for New Jersey undoubtedly improved as the storm tracked farther east than expected Sunday morning, experts still predict the storm will pivot north and then back west toward the Garden State in the coming 24 hours.
On Sunday, Hermine was technically a post-tropical cyclone off the shores of Long Island, New York, and Ocean City, Maryland, according to the National Weather Service. It has caused at least three deaths, inflicted widespread property damage and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people from Florida to Virginia.
Hermine’s center was expected to remain offshore, but it still was a large storm with tropical storm force winds stretching about 205 miles from its center. It should be minor again with maybe a few locations touching moderate.
NHC senior hurricane specialist Daniel Brown told the Guardian, “It’s going to sit offshore and it is going to be a tremendous coastal event with a risky storm surge and lots of larger waves probably causing significant beach erosion, for the next few days”. Gusts could be near 30 miles per hour, a little higher than today.
Because the storm tracked further east than expected, the coastal flooding threat has diminished greatly across the New York City area as well as in New Jersey and Delaware.
Governors all along the Eastern Seaboard announced emergency preparations.
Since sea levels have risen up to a foot due to global warming, the storm surges pushed by Hermine could be even more damaging, climate scientists say.
Michael Mann at Pennsylvania State University noted that this century’s 1-foot sea-level rise in New York City meant 25 more square miles flooded during Superstorm Sandy, causing billions in additional damage.
By 5am on Sunday, Hermine’s top sustained winds remained at 65mph as it moved north-east at 12mph.
Another man died in North Carolina when his tractor-trailer overturned Saturday morning amid strong winds on a bridge near Dare County, the Tyrrell County Sheriff’s Office said.
Anna Marie and Pete Coady, from Frisco, North Carolina, says their street is completely flooded and it looks like their home is “basically in the sound”.
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Beach closures and warnings to stay out the water were in place at New Jersey and DE shore towns, but that wasn’t enough to stop some swimmers.
