A baby shark was spotted swimming through the flooded suburbs of Surf City, New Jersey, as a powerful nor’easter storm battered the shoreline, causing widespread flooding and power outages.
A man said his wife spotted the baby shark swimming near the picket fences of his home on Saturday, New Jersey broadcaster News 12 reported. The couple watched from their front porch as it swam by, even heading up their driveway before turning around and vanishing underwater.
Storm causes flooding and power cuts
Locals slogged through floodwaters for a second day as the powerful nor’easter storm pummeled the shoreline on Sunday, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes. Tidal surges swamped low-lying neighbourhoods in New Jersey while wind gusts toppled trees on New York’s Long Island, damaging homes and bringing down utility poles.
In the New Jersey beach town of Sea Bright, each high tide brought a new round of flooding. “It’s not like a one-time occurrence,” said Caroline Virenius, whose garage filled with about a foot of water. “It’s getting wet again and again.”
Fatalities and rainfall
The slow-moving storm, which killed a New York City housing authority worker when a tree fell Saturday, was expected to linger through Sunday with heavy rain, strong winds and dangerous surf all the way to New England. More than 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of rain had fallen in some areas of Long Island since the storm began, according to the National Weather Service.
Well over 100,000 customers were without power across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic at times on Sunday, according to PowerOutage.us. The most widespread outages were in counties along the coast from New Jersey to Connecticut.
Local impact and response
The worst of the remaining rainfall was expected Sunday from northern New Jersey into southern New England. While the storm was gradually weakening, tidal flooding would stay through high-tide cycles Sunday night, said Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.
In New York City, water a few inches deep filled streets in the Howard Beach neighbourhood but didn’t deter residents from venturing out for coffee Sunday morning.
Carole Ann Palmer, who owns Jingles Bait and Tackle in North Beach Haven, New Jersey, said this was the worst flooding she’s seen in 10 years. “Yesterday, I was like, oh my God, it just keeps getting higher and higher,” said Palmer, who lives above the store. The front step was swept away in the storm and she saw neighbors kayaking through the streets on Saturday. Her biggest problem on Sunday was taking her two puppies outside to relieve themselves. She had to put on waders and carry them to dry land. “I take one at the time, carry them across the street so they can do their business and then come back, dry them off and then do the other one. It’s a workout,” Palmer said.
Bernard Dowd waded through tidal water Sunday to get to his Sea Bright home, a day after he got back from work to find his basement “filled up like a swimming pool.” But he said the situation around his neighbourhood likely would have been much worse if it weren’t for new rules requiring homeowners to raise the height of their homes in the wake of Sandy, which devastated the community. He also noticed that many around the community had lined their home and businesses with sandbags — something he wishes he would have done. “I’m always thinking they are hyping the storm,” he said.
