2023-09-24 07:52:02
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Tropical Storm Ophelia was downgraded to a posttropical depression Saturday, although it still posed a risk of coastal flooding and flash floods along the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Coastal areas of North Carolina and Virginia experienced flooding Saturday following the storm made landfall near a North Carolina barrier island, bringing rain, damaging winds and dangerous storm surge.
As of 11 p.m. Saturday, the center said Ophelia, downgraded to a weak tropical storm, was regarding 30 miles (50 kilometers) south-southwest of Richmond, Virginia, and regarding 85 miles (135 km) southeast. of Charlottesville, Virginia. Its maximum sustained winds were 55 kilometers per hour (35 miles per hour), with stronger gusts.
Alerts for coastal flooding and flood warnings were maintained in areas of the region, said the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
“The center of Ophelia is expected to turn north-northeast and northeast, moving across eastern Virginia and the Delmarava Peninsula through Sunday,” the NHC said.
Areas between Virginia and New Jersey were likely to receive 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 7.6 centimeters) of rain and up to 5 inches (12.7 cm) of water in some spots, the center said. Some towns on the New Jersey coast, such as Sea Isle City, already had flooding on Saturday.
Some areas of southeastern New York and southern New England might also see 1 to 3 inches of rain, while storm surge might affect much of the East Coast over the weekend, the NHC added. .
Philippe Papin, a hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center, said the main risk from the storm system in the coming days will be the threat of flooding from rain.
“Tropical storm-force winds have been observed, but they are beginning to gradually decrease as the system moves inland,” Papin said in an interview early Saturday. “However, there is a significant threat of flooding across much of eastern North Carolina into southern Virginia over the next 12 to 24 hours.”
The storm made landfall near the Emerald Isle with near-hurricane winds of 70 mph (113 km/h), but the winds weakened as it headed north and the storm’s center crossed into Virginia in the evening.
Videos spread on social media showed significant flooding in riverside communities in North Carolina, such as New Bern, Belhaven and Washington. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.
Even before making landfall, the storm proved so treacherous that the Coast Guard had to rescue five people Friday night from a catamaran anchored off the North Carolina coast, trapped in rough waters amid a gale.
Tens of thousands of homes and businesses remained without power in several eastern counties Saturday followingnoon, according to poweroutage.us, which monitors utility reports. A power map from Duke Energy showed scattered outages across much of eastern North Carolina, where the wind downed branches and damaged power lines.
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Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee. AP Radio’s Jackie Quinn in Washington and AP reporters Ron Todt in Philadelphia, Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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