Tropical Storm Fay shutters beaches, heads north
NEW YORK — Beaches closed in Delaware and shore town streets flooded in New Jersey as the fastmoving Tropical Storm Fay churned up the East Coast on a path expected to soak the New York City region.
The storm system was expected to bring 2 to 4 inches of rain, with the possibility of flash flooding in parts of the mid-Atlantic and southern New England, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its 2 p.m. advisory. That’s down from earlier forecasts of about 3 to 5 inches of rain.
Several beaches in Delaware had been temporarily closed because of the storm. And police in Ocean City asked drivers to avoid southern parts of the tourist town because flooding had already made some roads impassable. Some streets in the New Jersey shore towns of Sea Isle and Wildwood were flooded, according to social media posts. Seaside Heights, New Jersey, reported a sustained wind of 37 mph, said forecasters.
A tropical storm warning remained in effect from Fenwick Island, Delaware, to Watch Hill, Rhode Island. The warning area includes Long Island and the Long Island Sound in New York, forecasters said. Heavy rain was falling in New York City Friday afternoon as the center of the storm crept northward off the coast of New Jersey.
“We expect some pretty heavy winds, and we need people to be ready for that, and some flash flooding in certain parts of the city,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a briefing Friday morning.
The summer storm’s impact on the city was expected to be ”pretty limited,” but de Blasio said it would be a bad night for outdoor dining — the only sit-down service allowed at city restaurants due to the pandemic.