Tropical Storm Ernesto sends powerful swells, rip currents to US East Coast

Tropical Storm Ernesto churned away from Bermuda and headed further into the Atlantic but sent powerful swells rolling toward the U.S. East Coast, generating rip currents associated with at least one death and prompting many rescues.

The National Weather Service posted a coastal flood advisory and warned of high risk from rip currents along the Atlantic Coast through Monday evening, saying such currents “can sweep even the best swimmers away from shore into deeper water.”

“A lot of the eastern seaboard has high risk for rip currents due to strong swells coming off Ernesto,” said

Meteorologist Mike Lee of the weather service office in Mount Holly, N.J., said much of the Eastern Seaboard was at high risk for rip currents due to strong swells. A warning extended from Florida to the Boston area and portions of Maine.

In periods of high risk, rip currents become more likely and potentially more frequent and pose a danger to all levels of swimmers, not just inexperienced or novice swimmers, Lee said Sunday.

“It’s going to be really dangerous out in the water today,” he said.

At Manasquan Inlet in New Jersey, officials said a fisherman washed off the north jetty Saturday but was quickly rescued by lifeguards. Lifeguard Chief Doug Anderson told NJ Advance Media that the victim had knee and back injuries and a possible concussion and was taken to a hospital, and lifeguards in the New Jersey shore town rescued at least five other people. In Ventnor to the south, Senior Lieutenant Meghan Holland said eight people were rescued as conditions kept the number of visitors down.

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Forecasters, citing local emergency management, said a 41-year-old man drowned Saturday in a rip current at Surf City, North Carolina.

Two men drowned Friday in separate incidents on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, but it was unclear whether rip currents were involved, The Island Packert of Hilton Head reported, citing a spokesperson for the island’s lifeguard services. The rough surf contributed Friday evening to an unoccupied beach house along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore along North Carolina’s Outer Banks collapsing into ocean waters.

Flash flood warnings were posted for parts of Connecticut and southeastern New York, and flash flood watches and advisories were in effect for areas of Delaware, New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania with forecasters warning of flooding in low-lying areas.

Ernesto weakened to a tropical storm late Saturday after bringing heavy rains and strong winds to Bermuda but was expected to restrengthen later to a hurricane again as it headed northeast into Atlantic waters.

Bermuda Security Minister Michael Weeks said Sunday morning that businesses were beginning to open in the tiny British territory after the storm passed and “we are on our way back to living a life of normalcy.” There were no reports of major infrastructure damage, said Lyndon Raynor of Bermuda’s Disaster Risk Reduction Mitigation Team. BELCO, Bermuda’s power company, said 50% of customers had power but more than 12,000 remained without power Sunday.

Ernesto previously battered the northeast Caribbean, leaving tens of thousands of people without water in Puerto Rico. LUMA, Puerto Rico’s national power company, said it had restored more than 1.4 million customers’ electricity 96 hours after the storm’s passage late Saturday but service data Sunday morning showed more than 60,000 without power.

After cleaning up and removing debris, the Virgin Islands Department of Education said all public schools would resume operations Monday. Public school classes were also slated to start Monday in Puerto Rico, nearly a week after the original opening date.

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Gary Robertson reporting from Raleigh, N.C. and Mariana Martínez Barba reporting from Mexico City contributed to this story.