A Relentless Coastal Pummelling Across the Northeast
Residents across coastal communities in the northeastern United States slogged through rising floodwaters as a powerful and slow-moving nor’easter battered the shoreline. The severe weather system, which claimed the life of a New York City housing authority worker after a falling tree struck him on Saturday, delivered heavy rainfall, dangerous surf, and punishing wind gusts stretching all the way to New England.
Tidal surges swamped low-lying neighbourhoods throughout New Jersey, while fierce wind gusts toppled trees on New York’s Long Island, damaging residential properties and bringing down utility poles.
Infrastructure Strained as Flights and Power Lines Fall
Well over 100,000 customers across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic lost power at various points on Sunday, according to tracking data from PowerOutage.us. The most acute outages concentrated in coastal counties stretching from New Jersey up to Connecticut. Meanwhile, aviation felt the immediate impact of the high winds and reduced visibility. At Boston Logan International Airport, more than 250 flights faced cancellation by late Sunday morning as wind gusts roared up to 64 km/h, according to the Massachusetts Port Authority.
The destructive weather naturally drew immediate psychological comparisons to Superstorm Sandy, which inflicted more than $60 billion US in damage across the eastern United States back in 2012. While the overall devastation from this particular system has not reached Sandy’s catastrophic scale, meteorologists warn that it could mark the unwelcome vanguard of several similar coastal storms this fall. Experts attribute the heightened threat to an active El Niño climate pattern currently disrupting seasonal weather norms across the region.
On the Ground: Waders, Kayaks, and Endless Cleanups
Carole Ann Palmer, proprietor of Jingles Bait and Tackle in North Beach Haven, N.J., watched helplessly as the water rose higher than anything she had experienced in the past ten years. Living directly above her shop, Palmer witnessed neighbours paddling their kayaks through the neighbourhood streets on Saturday after the storm washed away her front step.
Her primary challenge on Sunday involved getting her two puppies outside to relieve themselves. Forced to don rubber waders, she carried the dogs individually across the street to dry land, brought them back, and dried them off repeatedly. “It’s a workout,” Palmer remarked.
Despite the hardship, structural adaptations made in the wake of past disasters proved invaluable. Bernard Dowd waded through tidal waters on Sunday to reach his Sea Bright home after discovering his basement filled to the brim like a swimming pool the previous evening. However, Dowd acknowledged that the neighbourhood fared considerably better than it might have historically, thanks to municipal rules established after Sandy that required homeowners to elevate their properties. He also noted a widespread rush by residents to line their properties with sandbags—a precaution he admitted wishing he had taken himself, noting that he consistently underestimates storm forecasts.
Forecasters Warn of Lingering Tidal Threats
While the storm system began its gradual weakening trend by Sunday, forecasters emphasized that the danger had not entirely passed. Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in College Park, Md., confirmed that coastal tidal flooding would persist through the remaining high-tide cycles on Sunday night, particularly from northern New Jersey down into southern New England.
In New York City, water a few inches deep spilled across streets in the Howard Beach neighbourhood, though it failed to completely deter locals from venturing out for morning coffee.
