Ernesto makes landfall on Bermuda, will stir up dangerous beach conditions for East Coast this weekend

CNN

By Mary Gilbert, CNN Meteorologist

(CNN) — Ernesto delivered a blow to Bermuda Saturday and was ramping up coastal danger for much of the United States’ Eastern Seaboard after it thrashed Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power.

Ernesto made landfall on Bermuda early Saturday as a Category 1 hurricane, with sustained wind speeds of 85 mph and gusts at 105 mph, according to the 5 a.m. ET update from the National Hurricane Center.

By 5 a.m. ET Sunday, Ernesto was a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph well northeast of Bermuda. headed north-northeast. It is expected to re-strengthen back into a hurricane sometime on Sunday as it heads toward Atlantic Canada, and a watch could be issued for Newfoundland, Canada, on Sunday or Monday, the National Hurricane Center said.

Even though Ernesto was hundreds of miles away from the US coast Sunday, deadly rip currents will be a threat from Florida through Maine Sunday and Monday.

“Swells generated by Ernesto are affecting portions of Bermuda, the East Coast of the United States, and Atlantic Canada,” the NHC said Sunday morning. “Life-threatening surf and rip current conditions are likely in these areas during the next couple of days.”

By Monday, the storm will head toward Atlantic Canada, and watches may be required for portions of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Canadian Hurricane Centre said impacts will include moderate to high surf along the Atlantic Coast of Nova Scotia, and some rain and moderate winds to southeasternmost Newfoundland.

“There could be some minor damage to docks and coastal structures,” the Canadian Hurricane Centre said.

Ernesto’s strength late this week was fueled by the extremely warm waters of the Atlantic — a phenomenon that’s becoming more frequent in a world warming due to fossil fuel pollution — but dry air interacting with the system prevented explosive strengthening.

The center of the hurricane moved over Bermuda on Saturday, but drenching rain and tropical storm-force wind gusts were already underway Friday over the tiny island, which is about a third of the size of Washington, DC.

The Bermuda International Airport reported tropical storm-force conditions with sustained winds of 41 mph with a gust to 63 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Tropical storm conditions continued in Bermuda into Saturday evening.

Ernesto was expected to unload 6 to 12 inches of rain over the island through Saturday night, with potential for isolated totals to approach 15 inches.

“This may result in considerable life-threatening flash flooding,” the National Hurricane Center warned Thursday.

Dangerous storm surge and significant coastal flooding will also unfold as Ernesto makes its closest approach to the island Saturday.

Dangerous surf for Eastern Seaboard

Ernesto will have wide-reaching impacts despite remaining so far from large land masses.

The hurricane will create massive waves — perhaps up to 40 feet high — in the open Atlantic that will spread hundreds of miles away. These elevated wave heights will bring rough seas and dangerous rip currents to the US East Coast, the Bahamas and parts of the Caribbean into early next week.

Two Ohio men are dead, officials say, after getting caught in rip currents hours apart on Hilton Head Island Friday as the hurricane moved north in the Atlantic Ocean.

The drownings happened about five hours apart at separate beaches on Hilton Head, a spokesperson for the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, Master Sgt. Daniel Allen, told CNN Saturday.

The first drowning occurred around 10:30 a.m. followed by the second drowning at about 3:20 p.m., Allen said.

Both men were visiting the area from Ohio, according to Allen, who noted that beach officials “warned people to be cautious of going out deep in water and to be cautious of rip currents.”

It is unclear whethear there was a connection or relation between the two men.

For a majority of the US Atlantic coast, the most dangerous coastal conditions will unfold over the weekend, coinciding with the time many people flock to the beach. Ernesto “will result in very dangerous rip currents (Saturday and Sunday),” the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, New Jersey, warned Thursday.

Rip currents can exhaust even the strongest swimmers and turn deadly. At least 29 people have been killed in rip currents this year in the US and its territories, according to the National Weather Service.

Beyond Bermuda, Ernesto will pass close to Atlantic Canada early next week and potentially bring some rain, wind and rough seas.

Outages linger after Ernesto

Ernesto’s center never made landfall over Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands but the system’s strong winds still knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people in total.

In Puerto Rico, about half of all customers on the island were at one point without power Wednesday, according to LUMA Energy, the private company that operates the transmission and distribution of power in Puerto Rico. By Friday morning, more than 200,000 were still in the dark.

In the US Virgin Islands, just over 10,000 customers were still without power Friday morning, about 20% of the island’s tracked customers, according to PowerOutage.us.

Heavy rain soaked the Virgin Islands late Tuesday and Wednesday. More than half a foot of rain drenched much of Puerto Rico and caused widespread flash flooding. Some locations recorded nearly a foot of rain from Ernesto: Just over 10 inches of rain fell over a 24-hour period in the mountain town of Barranquitas, according to a preliminary weather service report, while Villalba saw around 9.5 inches.

Intense rainfall and flooding caused several rivers to overflow their banks in Puerto Rico and interrupted water filtration processes at a number of water processing plants to varying degrees, according to the island’s water authority.

Even as Ernesto moved a few hundred miles away from Puerto Rico Wednesday night, water issues worsened. More than 250,000 water customers – about 20% of total customers – were without drinking water Friday morning, according to the island’s emergency portal system.

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CNN’s Amanda Musa and CNN meteorologists Elliana Hebert and Allison Chinchar contributed to this report.