Baltimore – Disrupting the start of the Labor Day weekend, the remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto drenched the Mid-Atlantic region, cut power to more than 400,000 customers and forced evacuations.
Flash flood watches were posted early Saturday for New Jersey and New York. Flood warnings were issued for North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia.
Ernesto was blamed for at least five deaths in Virginia and North Carolina, where it swirled ashore late Thursday as a tropical storm, a day after severe thunderstorms had already drenched the region. It weakened Friday to a tropical depression, meaning its sustained winds had fallen below 39 mph.
The storm lost much of its punch as it moved farther inland.
Flood watches were canceled in Pennsylvania, and rivers and streams across the state were expected to remain well within their banks, officials said.
Eastern North Carolina got 8 to 12 inches of rain, while southeastern Virginia measured up to a foot. Seven inches fell in Worcester County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and a wind gust of 61 mph was recorded in Ocean City, said Ed McDonough, spokesman for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.
Sheriff’s deputies in St. Mary’s County, Md., on Friday evacuated about 30 residents of St. George’s Island, which juts into the Potomac River where the river meets the Chesapeake Bay.
The county ordered the evacuation of all tidal areas, about 3,000 people.
Greg Gill, 36, waded through waist-deep water to leave the island. “It pushed me back and forth as I walked through it,” he said. “I was going to stay (in my house), but it just keep getting worse and worse.” More than 200 homes were evacuated in Richmond, Va., and about a dozen people had to leave their homes in coastal Poquoson, which is still recovering from Hurricane Isabel three years ago. About 50 homes on Chesapeake Bay’s Northumberland County were also evacuated, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said.
In Gloucester, Va., a husband and wife were crushed to death when a tree fell on their modular home, said Maj. T.P. Doss, a spokesman for the county sheriff’s office.
Two traffic deaths in Virginia and one in North Carolina were also blamed on Ernesto.
The red flags were up along the New Jersey shore on Friday, a warning to would-be bathers that the storm was on the way.
“You get close to that water, it’ll just suck you out,” Lifeguard Capt. Rob Albright said as he ate a cheeseburger on the Asbury Park boardwalk.
More than 460,000 customers were without power from North Carolina to New Jersey, with more than 200,000 of those in Virginia.
The governors of North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and the mayor of the District of Columbia, each declared a state of emergency because of the storm. Maryland Gov.
Robert Ehrlich said he decided against one because his state has been so dry.
North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley planned to take an aerial tour Saturday of the Northeast Cape Fear River. By late Friday, the river rose to over 16 feet in Chinquapin, a few inches above its flood stage of 13 feet. It was expected to crest Sunday at around 18 feet, at which point numerous roads would flood and residents would need to be evacuated, said Scott Kennedy, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Morehead City.
Arlene Losaw lost her mobile home to Hurricane Fran 10 years ago.
As the river rose Friday, water gradually covered her driveway and began lapping at the front stoop of her newer mobile home in Chinquapin. She and her husband, William, were hoping they wouldn’t have to evacuate – or lose their home again.
“I thought we were done with this mess,” Losaw said. “It keeps coming and, depending on how bad it gets, we may have to get out of here.” — Associated Press writers Sonja Barisic in Norfolk, Va., Mike Baker in Chinquapin, N.C., Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia and Jeffrey Gold in Asbury Park, N.J., contributed to this report.
