U.S. beach rip currents are impacted by Hurricane Ernesto
Hurricane Ernesto was nevertheless felt on Saturday along much of the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, despite the storm being hundreds of miles offshore. Dangerous rip currents forced the closure of public beaches on one of the busiest weekends of the summer.
The small barrier islands of North Carolina suffered damage from the storm’s high surf and swells, which also caused an abandoned beach home to tumble into the water.
Ernesto is still a “pretty large” hurricane with a “large footprint of seas and waves” that is affecting the central Florida Atlantic coastline all the way north to Long Island in New York, according to hurricane specialist Philippe Papin of the National Hurricane Center. Ernesto made landfall on the tiny British Atlantic territory of Bermuda early on Saturday.
โThat whole entire region in the eastern U.S. coastline are expecting to have high seas and significant rip current threats along the coast,โ Papin said. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration describes rip currents as โpowerful, narrow channels of fast-moving waterโ that move at speeds of up to 8 feet (2.44 meters) per second.
Oceanfront beaches in Brooklyn and Queens were closed to swimming and wading on Saturday and Sunday in New York City due to a serious rip current threat, with potential ocean swells of up to 6 feet (1.8 meters), according to National Weather Service estimates. Lifeguards remained available to monitor the beaches and issue warnings to individuals to avoid the sea.
In a statement, Mayor Eric Adams stated, “New Yorkers should know the ocean is more powerful than you are, particularly this weekend.” “Avoid swimming while our beaches are closed to avoid endangering your life or the lives of first responders.”
Additionally, the National Weather Service issued a warning about the possibility of hazardous rip currents along well-known beaches in Delaware and New Jersey, as well as as far north as Massachusetts.
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