Hermine lingers offshore, brings rough waves, rip currents

Tropical storm Hermine could strengthen as it meanders off the New Jersey coast causing widespread flooding and risky rip tides, while the Lehigh Valley forecast calls for sunny skies today and just a 20 percent chance of rain Monday.

On the Virginia Beach boardwalk, the Atlantic Ocean roared with uncharacteristically large waves, drawing only a couple of surfers into the choppy white water.

Here are the forecast graphics showing what to expect for wind gusts, rainfall and tides: LATEST STORM DETAILS:Hermine 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. At 8:00 AM the center of Post-Tropical Cyclone (PTC) Hermine was located at 37.9 N 68.3 W or approximately 295 Miles Southeast of the Eastern Tip of Long Island (see official forecast to the right). The system also left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity from Florida to Virginia. “It was terrible”, she said.

In Virginia Beach, Virginia, Seth Broudy, 45, owner of the Seth Broudy School of Surf, said high winds and tides flooded parking lots by his home on Saturday.

Cranbury Chief of Police Rickey Varga said he is closely watching the storm and staying in touch with the town’s Office of Emergency Management as well as school district officials as the first day of classes is scheduled for Tuesday. “And if your power was out, you kind of bounced around to find a restaurant or grocery store that still had power”. The drawbridge on U.S. Highway 64 over the Alligator River connects Tyrrell and Dare counties.

Doug Mercer of the Canadian Hurricane Centre says Atlantic Canada will be spared the flooding and lashing winds that battered the United States as the storm made its way from Florida to Virginia over the holiday weekend, causing three deaths, power outages and severe property damage.

“At a minimum, we’re going to have some beach erosion, rip currents and unsafe waves all the way from the south facing shores of New England, Cape Cod, Nantucket. down to the Hampton Roads area”, Knabb said. Almost 40,000 homes were in the dark Sunday and power crews say it could be the middle of the week before most power is back on.

A handful of people came out to the beach near the famous Steel Pier amusement park, mostly to look at the rough seas. Meanwhile, in Virginia, strong winds ripped the siding off a building in Virginia Beach Saturday. PTC Hermine is moving to the north at 3 miles per hour and has maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour.

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, 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. “And it’s only the beginning”.

On Saturday, high winds tipped over an 18-wheeler, killing its driver and shutting down the US 64 bridge in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. In Florida, a homeless man in Marion County was hit by a falling tree and was killed.

And on Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks, a small tornado spawned by Hermine knocked over two trailers and injured four people, authorities said.