Tropical Storm Hermine Winds Up to Batter Northeast

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON-Storm Hermine churned off the U.S. Middle Atlantic Coast on Sunday, with forecasters projecting it may regain hurricane strength as it creeps north, spoiling the Labor Day holiday weekend with high winds, soaking rains and surging seas.

The storm – which hit Florida as a Category One hurricane on Friday – was forecast to slam the city with tropical storm conditions for several days starting Sunday.

As of 10 a.m. CDT, Hermine was located about 295 miles south-southeast of the eastern tip of Long Island and was moving east-northeast at 10 mph. Hermine has left a trail of damage and power outages in its wake across the Southeast and East Coast, and the storm has been blamed for at least two deaths.

The storm system will affect the southern coast of Rhode Island and southeast coast of MA through at least Monday, according to the weather service.

It appears that the impact of storm system Hermine will be less severe than originally feared, New Jersey officials said Sunday, but they urged residents against being lulled into a false sense of security about the storm’s potential. “Don’t think that nothing is going to happen, because something is going to happen”. But hundreds, if not thousands of people, had descended onto the beach for the traditional last weekend of summer. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS: 70 miles per hour MOVEMENT: N/NE at 3 miles per hour CLASSIFICATION: Post-tropical-cyclone The hurricane center says post-tropical cyclones can continue carrying heavy rains and high winds.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management said on Twitter on Sunday that almost 80,000 utility customers were still without electricity.

The Anclote River northwest of Tampa was forecast to go well into major flood stage on Sunday afternoon. Emergency managers issued mandatory evacuations for some low-lying mobile home parks and apartment buildings. “And it’s only the beginning”.

On Saturday, high winds tipped over an 18-wheeler, killing its driver and shutting down the USA 64 bridge in North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

Tyrrell County Sheriff Darryl Liverman told the Virginian-Pilot that high winds tipped over an 18-wheeler, killing its driver and shutting down the US 64 bridge.

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.

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

In the northern Florida town of Ocala, a falling tree killed a homeless man sleeping in his tent.

The couple, both in their 60s, said they knew the storm would blow over, even as friends texted their concerns. “And if your power was out, you kind of bounced around to find a restaurant or grocery store that still had power”.

On Sunday afternoon, he said, a few homes still lacked power.

Since sea levels have risen to a foot because of global warming, the storm surges pushed by Hermine could be even more damaging, climate scientists say.