Hurricane Ernesto's eye was hundreds of miles from the U.S. on Saturday as it made landfall on Bermuda, but the storm is bringing weekend danger to East Coast beaches, according to rip current and high surf alerts.
Nearly 10 million people lived in areas with statements for rip currents, according to the National Weather Service on Saturday. (Rip currents can prove a deadly hazard for beachgoers far away from the center of a hurricane).
In North Carolina, at least one coastal house collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean in the Outer Banks, a local fire and rescue crew showed in a video posted Friday evening. A number of other homes are at risk of collapse as well from Ernesto, officials said.
“Ocean conditions will be dangerous for swimming due to surf height and scattered debris now,” the Chicamacomico Banks Fire and Rescue said in a social media post. “Please be cautious.”
In New York City, officials closed beaches in Brooklyn and Queens for the weekend due to dangerous rip currents from Ernesto. New Jersey officials also warned of dangerous and life-threatening rip currents along the Jersey Shore.
Ernesto made landfall early Saturday morning as a category 1 hurricane on Bermuda, a British territory that's about 650 miles away from North Carolina. Throughout Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said Ernesto continued to create strong winds and rain on Bermuda hours after the storm moved northward toward Canada. Its effects also rippled across the Atlantic.
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Ernesto previously left hundreds-of-thousands of homes and businesses in Puerto Rico without power when it hit the island Wednesday.
Dozens of rescues reported by New Jersey lifeguards
On the southern tip of New Jersey, Cape May Beach had a double red flag warning on Saturday to not enter the water. People followed those calls Saturday afternoon as a breeze came onshore with a few feet of groundswell, said Rich Demers, of the Cape May Beach Patrol.
On Friday afternoon, lifeguards rescued 40 people out of the water, prompting them to issue double red flags, Demers said. Currents were strong again Saturday, and the beach patrol expected to issue another double red flag warning Sunday.
“Whenever it gets a little bit sketchy, just be cautious,” he told USA TODAY. “Educate yourself about what rip currents are.”
2 men drown on Hilton Head, South Carolina, amid rip current warnings
Two men drowned Friday on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina the local sheriff’s office said. The picturesque resort town and the surrounding region have seen high rip current risk as Hurricane Ernesto made its way through the Atlantic Ocean far offshore.
Close to 10:30 a.m. Friday, Beaufort County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a drowning call. Beach patrol and emergency medical personnel were performing lifesaving measures on Ralph Jamieson, 65. Eyewitness testimony said Jamieson had been caught in a rip current before drowning, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Just after 3:20 p.m. deputies responded about 3 miles upshore to another drowning call. Witnesses saw Leonard Schenz, 73, in the water before it appeared he went under. Local firefighters attempted lifesaving measures, the sheriff’s office said.
The National Weather Service Charleston office said dangerous rip current risk remained in effect Saturday for South Carolina and Georgia beaches.
How a rip current works
Rip current risk will stretch nearly the entirety of the East Coast, Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center, said in a Saturday morning update. He emphasized that distant hurricanes can be deadly.
National Weather Service offices from Maine to Florida, warned of dangerous rip currents this weekend.
“Only go in the ocean if you think it’s safe, and follow any advice given by local lifeguards,” Brennan said. “And please heed those warning flags at the beach so you don’t become a statistic to Ernesto’s dangerous ocean conditions.”
But what are rip currents? As USA TODAY previously reported rip currents are narrow, strong currents that quickly flow away from the shore. Typically, they move about 1 to 2 feet per second, but they could move as fast as 8 feet per second, or 5.5 mph, beyond any Olympic swimmer’s pace. They’re usually no wider than 80 feet.
Normally, when waves hit the beach, water flows back to the ocean uniformly. But low spots in the ocean floor, near surf or breaks in sandbars, disrupt that uniform return of water. This causes water to rush through one area to create that powerful rip current outward.
If you're caught in a rip current, relax. Rip currents pull you out, not under. Float or tread water until you can escape or are rescued. Then, swim parallel to the beach, not against the current. Try to draw attention by yelling or waving.
Check conditions before entering water, and learn to identify rip currents. Always swim at a beach with a lifeguard.
Bermuda still under hurricane conditions hours after Ernesto passes
Bermuda still had hurricane conditions hours after Ernesto passed, Michelle Pitcher, director of Bermuda Weather Service, said in a Saturday afternoon briefing.
The eye of the storm had already passed by 8:30 a.m. local time, but Bermuda was still under a hurricane warning as of Saturday afternoon, Pitcher said. Earlier Saturday morning, Ernesto brought 89-mph winds and gusts of 109 mph at the National Museum of Bermuda, located west of the capital of Hamilton.
Later on Saturday, Bermuda still saw hurricane-level conditions, with 74-mph winds and gusts up to 89 mph. The archipelago is expected to continue seeing tropical storm-force winds until after midnight, in addition to a few more inches of rain, as Ernesto moves northward, Pitcher said.
On Bermuda, nearly three-quarters without power as officials wait to assess damage
Hurricane Ernesto knocked out power to nearly three-quarters of Bermuda, officials said in a Saturday afternoon briefing.
No major damage has been reported as Bermudians are urged to stay indoors and to keep businesses closed for now, Lyndon Raynor, of Bermuda’s disaster risk reduction mitigation team, said. About 11 people were in an emergency shelter, which Raynor added indicates people are staying home.
First responders would begin full evaluation of damage when conditions improved. Bermuda's causeway, a major roadway that runs through the archipelago, has been closed due to the hurricane. Inspections by structural engineers to reopen it wouldn't occur until at least daylight Sunday morning, Raynor said.
Nearly 64,000 people live on Bermuda, a collection of islands forming an archipelago that is a British territory.
“We need Bermudians, we need the residents, to stay off the streets, to stay sheltered,” Michael Weeks, national security minister, said, “so that we can weather this storm safely, and hopefully, with no major damage and/or injury and/or loss of life.”
Outer Banks home collapses into Atlantic, local officials say
At least one house collapsed in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. On Friday evening, Chicamacomico Banks Fire and Rescue posted video showing a two-story home swaying to and from the shoreline.
“Another house has collapsed due swell from Ernesto,” the local fire and rescue agency’s social media post said. “Please do not enter the ocean as the debris will be washing around for the next few days."
There were a number of other homes in the area at risk of collapse, the agency said. “We’re in for a rough weekend,” the department said in another post showing damage from the collapse.
Where is Hurricane Ernesto?
Rip currents can kill, even when a hurricane is far offshore
The strong winds of a hurricane can cause dangerous waves that pose a significant hazard to mariners and coastal residents and visitors, the hurricane center says. When the waves break along the coast, they can produce deadly rip currents – even at large distances from the storm.
A reportpublished by the American Meteorological Society last yearconcluded the percentage of direct deaths attributed to tropical-cyclone-related rip currents has doubled in recent years. The authors found that fatalities often occur one or two at a time from distant storms hundreds of miles offshore.
In 2008, despite the fact that Hurricane Bertha was more than a 1,000 miles offshore, the storm resulted in rip currents that killed three people along the New Jersey coast and required 1,500 lifeguard rescues in Ocean City, Maryland, over a 1 week period.
“The reason rip currents are so deadly is because all the other hazards in a hurricane have a visual cue,” the hurricane center's Jamie Rhome previously said.
‒ Doyle Rice and Dinah Voyles Pulver
When is the Atlantic hurricane season?
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30.
The peak of the season is Sept. 10, with the most activity happening between mid-August and mid-October, according to the Hurricane Center.
Contributing: Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY; John Gallas and Cheryl McCloud, USA TODAY Network.
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