Weakened Ernesto drenches Mid-Atlantic, causing power outages

The remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto drenched the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region, resulting in cut power to more than 400,000 customers and forced evacuations.

Photo: Weakened Ernesto drenches Mid-Atlantic, causing power outages

Weakened Ernesto drenches Mid-Atlantic, causing power outages

Ernesto was blamed for at least five deaths in Virginia and North Carolina, where it swirled ashore late Thursday as a tropical storm, a day after severe thunderstorms had already drenched the region. It weakened Friday to a tropical depression, meaning its sustained winds had fallen below 39 mph (63 kph).

Flash flood watches were posted early Saturday for Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. Flood warnings were issued for North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Many of the watches, including those in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, were lifted as the storm moved farther inland and lost much of its punch.

Both eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia got up to a foot (30 centimeters) of rain, and a wind gust of 61 mph (98 kph) was recorded in Ocean City, Maryland said Ed McDonough, spokesman for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.

Sheriff's deputies in St. Mary's County, Maryland, on Friday evacuated about 30 residents of St. George's Island, which juts into the Potomac River where the river meets the Chesapeake Bay. The county ordered the evacuation of all tidal areas, about 3,000 people.

More than 200 homes were evacuated in Richmond, Virginia, and about a dozen people had to leave their homes in coastal Poquoson, which is still recovering from Hurricane Isabel three years ago. About 50 homes on Chesapeake Bay's Northumberland County were also evacuated, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said.

In Gloucester, Virginia, a husband and wife were crushed to death when a tree fell on their modular home, said Maj. T.P. Doss, a spokesman for the county sheriff's office.

Two traffic deaths in Virginia and one in North Carolina were also blamed on Ernesto.

More than 460,000 customers were without power from North Carolina to New Jersey, with more than 200,000 of those in Virginia, reports AP.