Stormy Weather Ernesto turned back into a hurricane on Sunday as it moved away from Bermuda and out into the northeastern Atlantic. It sent huge waves towards the East Coast of the United States, which caused rip currents that killed one person and required many rescues.
The National Hurricane Centre in Miami said that Ernesto had sustained winds of up to 75 mph, which is just about Category 1 strength.
The hurricane centre said that Ernesto would get stronger over the next 12 hours. On Tuesday, it would weaken and become a post-tropical cyclone. The storm’s centre was about 520 miles south of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was supposed to pass close to southeastern Newfoundland late Monday night or early Tuesday morning.
Ernesto caused waves that hit parts of the Bahamas, Bermuda, the East Coast of the United States, and the Atlantic coast of Canada. The hurricane centre warned that dangerous surf and rip currents are likely to happen in these areas over the next few days.
The National Weather Service earlier issued a coastal flood advisory and said that there is a high chance of rip currents along the Atlantic Coast until Monday evening. They said that these currents “can sweep even the best swimmers away from shore and into deeper water.”
From Florida to parts of Maine and the Boston area, there was a warning.
Meteorologist Mike Lee in Mount Holly, New Jersey, said that rip currents are more likely to happen and could happen more often during times of high risk. They can be dangerous for swimmers of all skill levels, not just beginners.
He said, “It’s going to be really dangerous out in the water today.”
At New Jersey’s Manasquan Inlet, a fisherman washed off the north jetty on Saturday, but lifeguards quickly came to his aid. Lifeguard Chief Doug Anderson told NJ Advance Media that the victim was taken to the hospital with knee and back injuries and a possible concussion. At least five other people were also saved by lifeguards.
The city beach patrol’s Senior Lt. Meghan Holland said that eight people were saved in Ventnor, which is to the south.
Emergency managers in the area told forecasters that a 41-year-old man drowned in a rip current at Surf City, North Carolina, on Saturday.
Two men drowned on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, on Friday. A spokesperson for the lifeguard services told The Island Packet of Hilton Head that it was not clear if rip currents were a factor.
Separately, heavy rains that had nothing to do with the hurricane caused flooding in parts of western Connecticut on Sunday. The rain shut down roads, required water rescues, and led to a small mudslide. Two people were swept into the Little River in the town of Oxford by floodwaters, according to CT Insider. However, officials weren’t able to get to the area right away because of the flooding and had to handle other emergency calls, according to Oxford’s fire chief, Scott Pelletier. The Associated Press sent Pelletier a message asking for more information, but he did not respond.
Facebook videos showed that Oxford was flooded so badly that roads and homes were washed away. At least one video showed a small building being washed downstream.
On Facebook, police in Southbury asked people to stay home while roads were closed and emergency crews took care of other matters. In nearby Danbury, a mudslide forced the people to leave their home, according to a statement from city officials.
Some parts of Connecticut and southeastern New York had flash flood warnings up. Other parts of Delaware, New Jersey, and southeastern Pennsylvania had flash flood watches and advisories up.
An empty beach house along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore on North Carolina’s Outer Banks fell into the water Friday evening because of the rough waves. On Sunday, Seashore officials told people to stay away from beaches in parts of the village of Rodanthe where water has caused “substantial damage” to a number of oceanfront buildings. Over the next few days, the debris would be cleaned up.
New York’s Long Island has beaches that were closed to swimmers on Saturday and Sunday because of high tides. As East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen put it, “you can’t really have people sitting on the beach.”
He also said that a lot of people watched the water from the parking lot on Sunday.
Larsen said, “It’s pretty amazing to see the water almost up to the parking lot. That storm was hundreds of miles away, so it must have been pretty strong.”
He said that the annual fireworks show that draws a lot of people was called off for both Saturday and Sunday nights.
Ernesto was downgraded to a tropical storm late Saturday night. It had brought heavy rain and strong winds to Bermuda earlier in the day.
The small British territory was slowly getting back to normal after the storm. On Sunday, Bermuda’s security minister, Michael Weeks, said, “We are on our way back to living a life of normalcy.”
Lynn Raynor of Bermuda’s Disaster Risk Reduction Mitigation Team said that no major damage had been reported. Bermuda’s power company, BELCO, said that 50% of its customers had power, but more than 8,000 still did not have it on Sunday.
Ernesto hit the northeastern Caribbean before, leaving tens of thousands of people in Puerto Rico without water. More than 1.4 million customers of the national power company LUMA said they had power back on Sunday, but service data showed that more than 59,000 customers were still without power.
The Virgin Islands Department of Education said that all public schools would be open again on Monday after they had cleaned up and taken away any debris. Puerto Rico’s public schools were also set to open on Monday, almost a week after the original date.
