John Garrisi, left, and Gaige Graf move an outdoor table away from the waterfront during the early stages of a nor’easter storm Friday.
Robert F. Bukaty/AP
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Robert F. Bukaty/AP
Talia Manno opened her door Saturday morning to waves crashing halfway up the steps of her Atlantic City, New Jersey, home.
“I’m on my fifth walk,” Manno said. “I was really freaked out.”
Manno, a longtime resident, said the last time the water rose this high was during Hurricane Sandy.
“Even though you live here and you see high tide and flooding, it was really scary and it happened so quickly,” she said.
Manno is among tens of millions of people from the mid-Atlantic to coastal Maine who are in the path of a powerful, rare September nor’easter that is bringing coastal flooding, heavy rain and strong winds this weekend.
Nearly 80,000 people were without power in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts as of Saturday evening, according to the PowerOutage.com map. The storm is expected to continue hitting the Jersey Shore, New York City and eastern Massachusetts through Sunday, according to the NWS.
Videos posted on social media on Saturday showed streets flooded with water in New Jersey and massive waves hitting the coast. In New York, people have been seen kayaking in the streets. New Jersey and New York have declared states of emergency in counties in both states, including New York City.
Francis Tarasiewicz, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Massachusetts, said wind gusts along the coast could reach up to 60 miles per hour this weekend. This nor’easter is coming earlier than the typical October-May storm season, he said, and will last longer than normal.
Spectators watch the wave crash during a northeast storm Saturday in Hampton, NH
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“Many northeast storms impact the area over the course of about a day,” he said. “This is a quick burst of strong winds, in many cases heavy snow or rain.” But, Tarasiewicz said, “with this one, we’re looking at about a 48-hour period with winds above 35 to 40 miles per hour in the area.”
The northeast also makes travel difficult. More than 1,000 flights were canceled Saturday and thousands more were delayed, according to FlightAware data. Ferry services on Cape Cod and Rhode Island were disrupted and Amtrak canceled several trains due to weather conditions and downed cables.
Off the coast of New York, strong winds made cruising difficult for Jessica Lisboa. She brought green apples, ginger ale and an acupressure anti-nausea bracelet to prepare for the cruise to Bermuda.
“Don’t let me sugarcoat it. Was it wild? Yeah, sure. It was a little wild,” Lisboa said. “Honestly, it was like a roller coaster.” However, she considered this adventure worth it.
The nor’easter also pulled a number of events planned for the weekend. Oceans Calling, one of Maryland’s largest music festivals, was canceled Friday. An AC/DC concert in New Jersey has been postponed. The Boston Red Sox have announced that they will move their game against the Chicago Cubs.
Some East Coast residents have found a way to adapt.
When Olga Ostrovetsky chose a September date for her small outdoor wedding, she imagined a beautiful fall day.
But as she prepared to get married in Wallkill, N.Y., she said, “It’s very, very windy.”
At first disappointed, she now finds the positive in this disruption.
“It’s kind of fitting, to be honest, because my fiancé and I met and it was a torrential downpour,” she said. “We met on a day like this, and we are also getting married on a day like this,” she said.
As for Manno, the Atlantic City resident, plans to spend Saturday evening with family away from the coast. After this nor’easter, she said she doesn’t know how much longer she’ll live in the area.
“As the years go by, it seems like the flooding is increasing,” she said. “It’s crazy.”
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