Tropical Storm Ernesto churned away from Bermuda on Sunday and headed further out in the northeastern Atlantic, but it still sent powerful swells toward the US East Coast, generating rip currents associated with at least one death and prompting many rescues.
The National Weather Service posted a coastal flood advisory and warned of a high risk for rip currents along the Atlantic Coast until Monday evening, saying they “can sweep even the best swimmers away from shore into deeper water”.
A warning extended from Florida to the Boston area and portions of Maine.
In periods of high risk, rip currents become more likely and potentially more frequent, posing a danger to all levels of swimmers, not just inexperienced ones, said meteorologist Mike Lee in Mount Holly, New Jersey.
“It’s going to be really dangerous out in the water today,” he said.
At Manasquan Inlet in New Jersey, officials said a fisherman was washed off the north jetty on Saturday but was quickly rescued by lifeguards. The victim had knee and back injuries and a possible concussion and was taken to a hospital, Lifeguard Chief Doug Anderson told NJ Advance Media, and lifeguards rescued at least five other people.
In Ventnor to the south, Senior Lieutenant Meghan Holland said eight people were rescued.
Forecasters, citing local emergency management, said a 41-year-old man drowned on Saturday in a rip current at Surf City, North Carolina.
Two men drowned on Friday in separate incidents on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, but it was unclear whether rip currents were involved, The Island Packet of Hilton Head reported, citing a lifeguard services spokesperson. The rough surf contributed to an unoccupied beach house along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore along North Carolina’s Outer Banks collapsing into ocean waters on Friday evening.
Flash flood warnings were posted for parts of Connecticut and southeastern New York, and flash flood watches and advisories were in effect for areas of Delaware, New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania, with forecasters warning of floods in low-lying areas.
Businesses were beginning to reopen in the tiny British territory after the storm passed and “we are on our way back to living a life of normalcy”, said Bermuda Security Minister Michael Weeks on Sunday.
There were no reports of major damage, said Lyndon Raynor of Bermuda’s Disaster Risk Reduction Mitigation Team. BELCO, Bermuda’s power company, said 50 per cent of customers had electricity but more than 12,000 remained without it on Sunday.
Ernesto previously battered the northeastern Caribbean, leaving tens of thousands of people without water in Puerto Rico. The national power company LUMA said it had restored electricity to more than 1.4 million customers, but service data on Sunday showed more than 60,000 without power.
After cleaning up and removing debris, the Virgin Islands Department of Education said all public schools would resume operations on Monday. Public school classes were also expected to start on Monday in Puerto Rico, nearly a week after the original opening date.