Ernesto strengthened early Monday after reclaiming hurricane status over the weekend and produced life-threatening surf and rip currents for much of the East Coast.
While the hurricane grew stronger in the past hours, generating maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, the National Hurricane Center said Ernesto's cloud pattern suggested it had stopped strengthening.
Ernesto was spinning about 340 miles south-east of Halifax, Canada, according to the National Hurricane Center. It was moving north-northeast much faster than in recent days, at 21 mph, the center said in its 5 a.m. ET update.
“A turn toward the northeast and east-northeast with an increase in forward speed is expected today and Tuesday,” the NHC said in its advisory on the storm. The storm will retain its strength on Monday and is expected to weaken later in the night, the hurricane center added.
The hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm Saturday night as its maximum sustained winds, estimated at 70 mph, didn't reach hurricane strength. But it regained strength Sunday, generating maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, above the Category 1 hurricane threshold of 74 mph.
“The center of Ernesto will pass near southeastern Newfoundland tonight and early Tuesday,” the forecasters said Monday, adding “a weakening trend should begin by tonight or tomorrow.”
New York City officials, concerned about rip currents, closed Brooklyn and Queens beaches to swimming through the end of Sunday.
In New Jersey, state officials warned beachgoers to watch for rip currents and keep their feet in the sand until a lifeguard is on duty. In Atlantic City, officials warned that high seas produced by Ernesto could combine with the high tide after 7 p.m. on Sunday to produce coastal flooding.
A man who died in the ocean off Surf City, North Carolina, was identified Sunday as 41-year-old Sean A. Davis of Hampstead, North Carolina, the Surf City Fire Department said in a statement.
The department, which also runs lifeguard operations, did not link the incident on Saturday afternoon to Ernesto, but it said beachgoers should be aware of conditions and never venture into the water alone.
On Friday, two men drowned in rip currents off Hilton Head, South Carolina. The victims, identified as Ralph Jamieson, 65, and Leonard Schenz, 73, died in separate incidents and appeared to be taken under amid rip currents, the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
It wasn't clear whether Ernesto could be blamed, however, as the waters off Hilton Head are subject to rip currents year-round, authorities said.
Also Friday, dramatic video posted to Instagram showed a stilted home along the North Carolina shore collapse into the incoming ocean waves.
No injuries were reported after the collapse in Rodanthe on Hatteras Island. The home was unoccupied, the National Park Service said in a statement. Officials from Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge urged visitors to avoid the beaches around Rodanthe.
The North Carolina coast from Newport to Morehead City was covered by a National Weather Service forecast of life-threatening rip currents, which can "sweep even the best swimmers away from shore into deeper water."
The coast around Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to beyond Wilmington, North Carolina, was subject to the same forecast.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration buoys along the coast from North Carolina to Rhode Island measured wave heights of 5 to 6 feet Sunday evening.
Life-threatening surf and rip currents from Bermuda to Canada are possible for the next few days, the hurricane center said.
Ten million people were covered by National Weather Service coastal flood advisories Sunday. The advisories are issued when moderate to major coastal flooding is occurring or imminent.
