HURRICANE UPDATE MONDAY AFTERNOON: Height Of The Storm Here Now In RI

HURRICANE UPDATE MONDAY AFTERNOON: Height Of The Storm Here Now In RI

Hurricane Sandy isaccelerating rapidly toward the New Jersey coastline. As of 2pm this massive storm was located about 300 miles south-southwest of Providence and was moving northwest at 28 mph. At that pace it will slam into Southern New Jersey early this evening. From that point it will weaken, slow down and meander into Pennsylvania and by later Tuesday will turn northward into upstate New York.

A truly great natural disaster

Winds have increased to 90 mph near the center and will maintain that strength until landfall. This is truly a great natural disaster as several communities in the Mid-Atlantic are already fully or partially underwater, including Atlantic City. And the worst is yet to come.

Rhode Island: worst from now 'til later tonight

The worst part of the storm for us will be from the present time until 8 or 9 pm. East to northeast winds will gust over 50 mph with a few gusts to 65-75 mph especially near the coast and over higher terrain inland. Needless to say power outages on a widespread basis are very likely. The coast and Narragansett Bay communities will experience the worst of Sandy locally with major flooding and destructive wave damage. A coastal surge of 4-6 feet over mean high water is expected this evening as high tide approaches at 9 pm. That surge could reach 7-8 feet in the upper portion of Narragansett Bay. As indicated earlier, there will be bands of heavy rain moving through the area but river and stream flooding is not expected to be a big problem.

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The storm will diminish after midnight but gusty winds and scattered showery periods could persist into Wednesday.

Caution: this is the height of the storm

The next few hours will be the height of the storm for us. Please resist the temptation to go out and see what’s going on. I will continue to have updates on a regular basis.

Photo: Jerri Moon Cantone.