New Jersey shore communities sat under feet of floodwater as a departing nor’easter left one dead, dozens rescued, and coastal towns bracing for final rains and damage assessments.
Parts of Manasquan, New Jersey, remained under several feet of high-tide flooding early Monday even as the storm began to clear, FOX Weather reported.
The system had meandered just off the New Jersey coast before moving onshore Saturday, tracking closer to land than early models suggested and slamming a long stretch of the East Coast from North Carolina’s Outer Banks to New England.
By the time the worst winds eased, crews were pulling people from homes and cars, roads sat underwater, and officials were preparing a full beach damage assessment for the week ahead.
A 56-year-old man was killed Saturday when a falling tree struck him in Brooklyn as strong winds slammed New York City.
The New York City Office of Emergency Management received more than 1,000 reports of downed trees across the five boroughs. Gusts reached 60 mph over the weekend, topped 40 mph across eight states, and hit between 60 and 74 mph from Delaware to Massachusetts.
Those winds knocked out power for more than 150,000 customers and left lines and branches sprawled across sidewalks as far north as Mansfield, Connecticut.
In Sea Bright, New Jersey, the mayor told FOX News correspondent CB Cotton that 67 people had been rescued since the storm began, including 45 pulled from their homes.
Ocean City saw high-water trucks pull people stranded in cars while homeowners sat trapped by floodwaters. Video from Avalon showed water moving into houses. In Sea Isle City, a van sat half-submerged. Edgewater had significant flooding, with a vehicle underwater in a parking lot along the Hudson River.
Point Pleasant issued a voluntary evacuation as roads flooded. On Long Beach Island, water cut the municipality off from the mainland at one point Saturday. Firefighters worked flood duty across parts of the state as a Level 2 out of 4 flood risk covered New Jersey.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill declared a state of emergency for eight counties ahead of damaging winds, heavy rain, coastal flooding, and beach erosion expected from Friday night through the weekend.
Atlantic City saw water rise more than 3 feet above normal high tide, the most since the 4.16-foot mark recorded during Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
Manasquan took an even heavier hit on the back bay, with water reaching more than 7 feet Saturday night. Several feet of high-tide flooding still lingered there early Monday.
Farther east, neighborhoods in Babylon on Long Island still dealt with several feet of flooding late Sunday. Local police said the ocean overtopped beach dunes. In Queens, roads went under water, and social media video showed people kayaking down streets in Howard Beach.
The storm’s reach stretched well beyond New Jersey. North Carolina’s Outer Banks saw N.C. 12 closed between the Marc C. Basnight Bridge and Rodanthe after ocean water overtook the road. Moderate coastal flooding ran from Virginia’s Tidewater up the Connecticut coast. Much of eastern Massachusetts recorded more than 6 inches of rain. In Hull, waves kept crashing ashore at Nantasket Beach even more than 200 miles from the storm’s core.
Coastal flooding was expected to recede after Monday’s last high-tide cycle, though more rain still swept the Jersey Shore as the weakened system sat over open water between New Jersey and Long Island.
The FOX Forecast Center said the pattern was shifting.
"The system will continue to produce light rain across the Northeast, but the winds will be much weaker than they were over the weekend,"
Forecasters added the leftover storm would spread light rain into northern New England on Tuesday while the Mid-Atlantic and New York Tri-State area dry out.
"On Tuesday, what's left of the storm will spread light rain into northern New England while the Mid-Atlantic and Tri-State Area dry out,"
Officials planned to move from rescue and response into a full accounting of beach erosion and shoreline damage. For coastal towns that watched dunes fail, streets turn into canals, and families wait on high-water trucks, that survey will measure how much the weekend took, and what has to be rebuilt before the next storm arrives.
When the tide finally drops, it’s the cops, firefighters, and working families on those flooded blocks who clean up the mess, not the people who treat every forecast like a press opportunity.
