Tropical Storm Hermine hit North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Saturday, having crossed from the Gulf of Mexico through the Florida panhandle, Georgia and the Carolinas. The storm was projected to creep north along the Carolina coast, then gather strength after moving offshore into the Atlantic. On Sunday it was reported as being likely to regain hurricane strength by Monday morning Eastern time.
The threat of severe weather caused officials in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to cancel concerts over the weekend, and beaches were closed in several coastal communities.
After heading east-northeast into the open ocean, by 8 am ET on Sunday Hermine was about 295 miles east-southeast of Ocean City, Maryland, with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.
The category 1 hurricane first made landfall in Florida late Thursday night on September 1st.
In Panama City, Florida, the captain of the port banned all incoming and outgoing vessel traffic while the hurricane passed. US Coast Guard advisories said that there were “no safe havens” in the Florida ports of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Port Manatee. The ports of Brunswick and Savannah (both in Georgia) and Charleston in South Carolina were closed to larger vessels in expectation of tropical storm-force conditions.
Previously, when the course of the then tropical storm seemed likely to take it further west, a number of offshore oil drillers had evacuated non-essential personnel and shut in production on some rigs.