A “strong” nor’easter is slamming the north east United States, impacting millions as the storm brings heavy rain, strong wind gusts, rip currents, and “dangerous” coastal flooding.
The storm is impacting several eastern states, including New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Maryland. Videos surfacing across social media show standing storm surges in New Jersey, as the Garden State gets the brunt of the impact. At the time of this writing, a state of emergency had been called for portions of New Jersey and New York, including New York City, Salem, Long Island, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, and more as tens of thousands are already without power.
“I’m declaring a State of Emergency for Nassau, Suffolk, New York City and Westchester as this powerful coastal storm bears down on the region,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said on Friday. “We’re expecting dangerous coastal flooding, strong winds and potential power outages through the weekend. Take this storm seriously. Stay alert, avoid unnecessary travel, and text 333-111 for realtime updates.”
According the National Weather Service (NWS), the storm is not expected to weaken until Sunday night.
“The Nor’easter will produce significant coastal impacts along the Eastern Seaboard as the Nor’easter rapidly intensifies off the Mid-Atlantic Coast on Saturday. The system will approach the New Jersey coast Saturday night and Sunday before moving northeastward on Monday,” NWS said, continuing:
This storm is expected to bring major coastal flooding to the Mid-Atlantic Coast over multiple high tide cycles through the weekend. Widespread major coastal flooding is expected by the Saturday morning high tide cycle, but repeated rounds of flooding are likely. Prepare immediately for significant inundation in low-lying areas near the shore, including roads underwater and impacts to homes and businesses. Moreover, large breaking waves will continue to generate strong rip currents, beach erosion, road closures, and property damage for the Carolinas and Mid-Atlantic into Southern New England through Monday. In addition, the strong Nor’easter will bring widespread strong to gale-force winds to much of the U.S. East Coast, with wind gusts increasing to 45-65 mph for Eastern Long Island and Southeastern New England. This could cause power outages and tree damage in some areas.
It adds that heavy rain could lead to flooding from northern New Jersey to southern New England.
“Therefore, the WPC has issued a Slight Risk (level 2/4) of excessive rainfall, with heavy rain over parts of Southern New England through Sunday night,” NWS said. “The associated heavy rain will create mainly localized flash flooding, with urban areas, roads, small streams, narrow canyons/gullies, and burn scars most vulnerable.”
