BALTIMORE – A weakened Tropical Storm Ernesto drenched the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region, resulting in cut power to more than 400,000 customers and forced evacuations.
Flash flood watches were posted early Saturday for Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. Flood warnings were issued for North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and the District of Columbia.
Ernesto was blamed for at least five deaths in Virginia and North Carolina, where it swirled ashore late Thursday as a tropical storm, a day after severe thunderstorms had already drenched the region. It weakened Friday to a tropical depression, meaning its sustained winds had fallen below 39 mph.
Eastern North Carolina got 8 inches to 12 inches of rain, while southeastern Virginia measured up to a foot. Seven inches fell in Worcester County on Maryland's Eastern Shore, and a wind gust of 61 mph was recorded in Ocean City, said Ed McDonough, spokesman for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.
Check the National Hurricane Center's forecast to monitor Tropical Storm Ernesto
Sheriff's deputies in St. Mary's County, Maryland, on Friday evacuated about 30 residents of St. George's Island, which juts into the Potomac River where the river meets the Chesapeake Bay. The county ordered the evacuation of all tidal areas, about 3,000 people.
More than 200 homes were evacuated in Richmond, Virginia, and about a dozen people had to leave their homes in coastal Poquoson, which is still recovering from Hurricane Isabel three years ago. About 50 homes on Chesapeake Bay's Northumberland County were also evacuated, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said.
In Gloucester, Virginia, a husband and wife were crushed to death when a tree fell on their modular home, said Maj. T.P. Doss, a spokesman for the county sheriff's office.
Two traffic deaths in Virginia and one in North Carolina were also blamed on Ernesto.
More than 460,000 customers were without power from North Carolina to New Jersey, with more than 200,000 of those in Virginia.
The governors of North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and the mayor of Washington, D.C., each declared a state of emergency because of the storm. Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich said he decided against one because his state has been so dry.
North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley planned to take an aerial tour Saturday of the Northeast Cape Fear River. By late Friday, the river rose to over 16 feet in Chinquapin, a few inches above its flood stage of 13 feet. It was expected to crest Sunday at around 18 feet, at which point numerous roads would flood and residents would need to be evacuated, said Scott Kennedy, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Morehead City.
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