Hermine lingers off shore continuing its unsafe storm surges

Hermine (her-MEEN) rose up over the Gulf of Mexico and hit Florida on Friday as a Category 1 hurricane before weakening to a tropical storm across Georgia.

Some beach erosion is also possible.

A tropical storm warning remained in effect Sunday night from the DE and New Jersey shores north to New York’s Long Island and beyond to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Island off MA, but was canceled for New York City, which Berg said appeared largely out of harm’s way.

It’s now targeting the eastern seaboard from Maryland to MA.

The National Weather Service has New Jersey in for minor coastal flooding.

Environment officials say Maritimers should brace themselves for blustery weather during the first week of school, as post-tropical storm Hermine makes it way up the East Coast. Warnings of potentially unsafe riptides temporarily cleared the water Monday morning, but a couple of dozen beachgoers and a handful of surfers returned to the water in Atlantic City by the afternoon. North winds will be around 17 miles per hour. Long Beach Island is still in a beach replenishment program.

The Anclote River northwest of Tampa was forecast to go well into major flood stage Sunday afternoon.

Massachusetts Emergency Management Association (MEMA) spokesperson Sarah White told WBZ NewsRadio 1030’s Carl Stevens that officials at the MEMA bunker in Framingham are particularly concerned about the wind effects of Hermine on the south-facing coastline, from New Bedford to the outer Cape and islands.

“We are already experiencing more and more flooding due to climate change in every storm”, said Michael Oppenheimer, a geosciences professor at Princeton University.

Michael Mann, at Pennsylvania State University, said the 1-foot rise that New York City has experienced over the past century caused an additional 25 square miles and several billions of dollars of damage with Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

Hermine has been linked to at least two deaths – one man sleeping in a tent in Ocala died after a tree fell on him, while another, a truck driver, died when his vehicle overturned due to high winds in eastern North Carolina.

“If you weren’t in the flood-prone area, it was like a normal day”, he said.

That being said, there still is a Tropical Storm Warning in effect for the immediate shoreline, so swimming and boating is discouraged for a few days.

He is one of around 6,000 people onboard the ship during the storm.