Nor'easter Damage Update
We're getting a better idea of the extent of damage caused by the fierce Nor'easter that's battered the eastern seaboard including Delmarva and Ocean City, Maryland.
Ocean City suffered severe beach erosion and lost some of its dunes in the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida.
Resort officals say they're still dealing with lingering effects of the storm including rain and gusty winds.
Ocean City has a few more high tides cycles to go through before doing a full assessment of the damage.
But motorists on the Delmarva peninsula are being detoured from roads flooded by wind and rain from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida.
Tides washed out dunes along state Route 1 near the Indian River bridge, leaving several feet of water and three feet of sand on the road. Transportation officials say it may take two days to clear the sand.
Highs winds and rain from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida battered the Delmarva peninsula Thursday, flooding roads, causing power outages and forcing early school closings.
Delmarva Power reported about 3,500 customers without power Thursday morning, most of them in Worcester County in Maryland. The number of affected customers had dropped to about 400 by early afternoon, mostly in Harford, Md.
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Elsewhere, high water closed one southbound lane of the bridge over the Indian River inlet in Delaware. Schools in the Indian River district were to close an hour early because of the bad weather. Parents living in flooded low-lying areas were told to
meet school buses at higher elevation areas to pick up their children.
Sussex Tech High School and schools in the Milford, Del., district also were dismissed early. Sussex County emergency operations director Joseph Thomas said water was still up to the dune lines at Rehoboth Beach five hours after the morning high tide, and that flooding could last through three to five high tides.
Forecasters were predicting that the storm could drop as much as 5 inches of rain Thursday and Friday, on top of about 2 inches that already had fallen in southern Delaware.
The heavy rains, coupled with winds gusting as high as 55 mph, could cause road flooding and knock down trees and power lines, officials warned. "This storm has the potential to cause a multitude of problems and inflict significant damage," Thomas said.
Coastal flood warnings were in effect across Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland, with high wind warnings and high surf advisories along the coast.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
