NOAA/NESDIS/STAR GOES-East
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Tropical Storm Isaias is moving north after making landfall as a Category 1 hurricane Monday night near Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina.
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Isaias has led to more than 2 million power outages, causing Con-Edison’s second largest outage in company history.
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The storm has caused at least five deaths.
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Isaias is the earliest named storm starting with “I” in history.
Tropical Storm Isaias brought widespread tornadoes and heavy rain to much of the East Coast on Tuesday, after making landfall as a Category 1 hurricane near Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, on Monday night.
As of 7:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, the storm had killed at least five people, according to the Associated Press. Trees felled by heavy winds crushed drivers in New York City and St. Mary’s County, Maryland. In Bertie County, North Carolina, a tornado killed two people in a mobile home park on Monday. And at least one resident of Puerto Rico died last week when the storm passed near the island, the New York Times reported.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) has issued tornado watches for parts of southern Connecticut, New Jersey, southeast New York, and southeast Pennsylvania.
A tropical storm warning is in effect from Manasquan Inlet in New Jersey up to Stonington, Maine, as well as for Long Island, New York; Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in Massachusetts; and Block Island, Rhode Island.
The storm was racing across eastern New York on Tuesday evening, moving northeast at 40 mph. It’s predicted to progress across New England as the night wears on.
More than 2 million households have lost power, according to the tracking site PowerOutage.us. More than half of those are in New Jersey, where a state of emergency was declared Monday night. Con Edison said the storm has caused the second-biggest outage in company history, after Superstorm Sandy.
Isaias has left a trail of damage
Isaias came ashore around 11 p.m. ET on Monday with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph. It has since been downgraded to a tropical storm, with winds of 65 mph. (The difference between a tropical storm and hurricane is a matter of wind speed: A tropical storm’s winds blow at 39 to 73 mph, while a hurricane’s are 74 mph or greater.)
When Isaias hit North Carolina, it triggered flooding and started fires at four homes, Ocean Isle Beach Mayor Debbie Smith told WECT-TV. Smith said flood waters reached 3 feet in some areas.
On Tuesday afternoon, some residents of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, reported that tornadoes hit a hospital and adjacent daycare center, causing cars to pile up in the hospital’s parking lot and partially ripping off the center’s roof.
In Belmont Hills, Pennsylvania, crews made several rescues after heavy rains caused roadways to flood, according to Philadelphia’s ABC affiliate. Cars stalled in other parts of the state, including Philadelphia and Bryn Mawr.
Last week, Isaias swept through the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico as a tropical storm, where it flooded roads, felled trees, and caused landslides. It led to hundreds of thousands of power outages for Puerto Rican residents, the Times reported.
After becoming a hurricane on Thursday, Isaias battered the Bahamas, dropping more than 1 foot of rain in some areas. It then grazed Florida over the weekend.
Isaias’ track up the East Coast
Some coastal residents could still see storm surges of up to 2 feet, the NHC has warned. Daniel Brown, a senior hurricane specialist at the NHC, told the AP that rains could also lead to flash floods.
NOAA/NWS
On Monday, New York City prepared by setting up water barriers in the South Street Seaport, an area severely flooded during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
“The impact appears to be limited in terms of New York City,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday, according to CBS New York. “But, my friends, we have been surprised before by storms. We’ve been surprised by the way they can change at the last minute. So we’re in a very vigilant state right now.”
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
The earliest named storm starting with ‘I’
Isaias was the earliest named storm starting with “I” ever to form in a hurricane season. Because storms are named in alphabetical order, that means nine tropical storms have already formed — the first time that’s happened before August 1 since the US began recording hurricane data in the 19th century.
Horry County Fire Rescue via AP
The season’s first hurricane, Hanna, made landfall in southern Texas on July 25, with wind speeds reaching 90 mph. Forecasts for the season overall predict a high activity, with up to six major storms (category 3 or higher).
Hurricanes are increasing in intensity due to climate change; they are expected to grow even stronger and more frequent as the planet continues to warm.
Because hurricanes use warm water as fuel, they have more to feed on as oceans warm. A 2013 study found that for each degree the planet warmed over the previous 40 years, the proportion of category 4 and 5 storms — the strongest hurricanes — increased by 25% to 30%.
Research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, meanwhile, shows that each new decade over the last 40 years has brought an 8% increase in the chance that a storm turns into a major hurricane.
In addition to making hurricanes stronger, climate change is also making them slower and wetter: Over the past 70 years, the speed of hurricanes and tropical storms has slowed about 10% on average, according to a 2018 study. Slower hurricanes, like Dorian last year, linger longer over the same area, causing greater damage than a faster-moving storm would.
This is a developing story — check back for updates.
Aylin Woodward contributed reporting.
Read the original article on Insider