Residents of coastal communities in the US’s north-east slogged through floodwaters for a second day as a powerful storm known as a nor’easter pummeled the shoreline on Sunday, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes.
Tidal surges swamped low-lying neighborhoods in New Jersey while wind gusts toppled trees on New York’s Long Island, damaging homes and bringing down utility poles.
In the New Jersey beach town of Sea Bright, each high tide brought a new round of flooding. “It’s not like a one-time occurrence,” said Caroline Virenius, whose garage filled with about a foot of water (۳۰cm). “It’s getting wet again and again.”
The slow-moving storm, which killed a New York City Housing Authority worker when a tree fell on Saturday, was expected to linger through Sunday with heavy rain, strong winds and dangerous surf all the way to New England.
Extreme amounts of rain – more than ۴ inches (۱۰cm) since Friday in some spots in New Jersey – combined with a surging ocean led to flooding amounts not seen for close to a decade in places used to dealing with high water, residents said.
The National Weather Service (NWS) predicted the storm would weaken over Sunday night with local heavy rain in parts of New England and the mid-Atlantic. But local officials in New Jersey and New York told residents that high tide late on Monday could bring more flooding.
“There is another band of the storm, a weaker band, but still another band that could hit early this afternoon and later into the evening,” said New York’s Nassau county executive, Bruce Blakeman.
The nor’easter triggered memories of Superstorm Sandy, which left behind over $۶۰bn in damage across the eastern US in ۲۰۱۲. While this storm’s impact has been nowhere near that, it could be the first of several along the east coast during the fall because of an El Niño climate pattern that is disrupting this year’s weather.
Images of waves crashing into sea walls and on to beaches raised concerns about coastal erosion.
Well over ۱۰۰,۰۰۰ customers were without power across the north-east and mid-Atlantic at times on Sunday, according to PowerOutage.us. The most widespread outages were in counties along the coast from New Jersey to Connecticut.
The total number of outages across the US had fallen on Monday morning to about ۵۵,۰۰۰, with more than ۱۰,۰۰۰ of those reported in Hawaii, which was dealing with the threat of heavy, flash flooding and strong winds as Hurricane Nolo moved away from the state.
Numerous flights were canceled or delayed up and down the east coast. More than ۲۵۰ flights had been canceled at Boston Logan international airport by late Sunday morning as wind gusts reached ۴۰mph (۶۴km/h), according to the Massachusetts Port Authority.
The worst of the remaining rainfall was expected on Sunday from northern New Jersey into southern New England.
While the storm was gradually weakening, tidal flooding would stay through high-tide cycles on Sunday night, said Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service (NWS) in College Park, Maryland.
In New York City, water a few inches deep filled streets in the Howard Beach neighborhood but did not deter residents from venturing out for coffee on Sunday morning.
Carole Ann Palmer, who owns Jingles Bait and Tackle in North Beach Haven, New Jersey, said this was the worst flooding she had seen in ۱۰ years.
“Yesterday, I was like, oh my God, it just keeps getting higher and higher,” said Palmer, who lives above the store.
The front step was swept away in the storm, and she saw neighbors kayaking through the streets on Saturday.
Her biggest problem on Sunday was taking her two puppies outside to relieve themselves. She had to put on waders and carry them to dry land.
“I take one at the time, carry them across the street so they can do their business and then come back, dry them off and then do the other one. It’s a workout,” Palmer said.
Bernard Dowd waded through tidal water on Sunday to get to his Sea Bright home, a day after he got back from work to find his basement “filled up like a swimming pool”.
But he said the situation around his neighborhood would probably have been much worse if it were not for new rules requiring homeowners to raise the height of their homes in the wake of Sandy, which devastated the community.
He also noticed that many around the community had lined their homes and businesses with sandbags – something he wishes he had done too.
“I’m always thinking they are hyping the storm,” he said.
