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Storm soaks Carolinas, Virginia

Ernesto, downgraded to a tropical depression, leaves flooding in its wake.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 2, 2006

NORFOLK, Va. - Ernesto weakened to a tropical depression Friday, but the storm still packed enough punch to dump more than half a foot of rain, knock out power to more than 300,000 customers and force hundreds of people from their homes.

On the eve of the Labor Day weekend, the storm prompted flash flood watches for wide sections of Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and central New York.

"Nobody is relaxing until long after the storm has passed," Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said.

At least one person died when a massive tree crushed a modular home in Gloucester, Va. Gloucester Sheriff's Maj. Mike Nicely said rescuers found one body trapped under the tree and feared another resident was dead inside. The storm was also blamed for at least one traffic death in Virginia and one in North Carolina, where it swirled ashore late Thursday, a day after severe thunderstorms had already drenched the region.

At 5 p.m. Friday, the time of the National Weather Service's final advisory on the storm, Ernesto was centered about 25 miles southeast of Richmond, Va., and moving north at about 10 mph. It had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph. The storm was expected to continue its northward track into Pennsylvania.

More than 200 homes were evacuated in Richmond 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, Kaine said.

North Carolina got the heaviest initial rainfall, with more than 8 inches falling on the Wilmington area - a record for the date. Parts of western Virginia got 6 inches by mid morning, and North Myrtle Beach, S.C., measured nearly 7 inches.

In Beaufort County, N.C., near the coast, about 1,500 families were under a mandatory evacuation order, and police went door to door early Friday in an area with poor drainage, said George Sullivan, director of the county Emergency Management Office.

In Virginia, utilities reported about 317,000 customers without power statewide.

The governors of North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, and the mayor of the District of Columbia, each declared a state of emergency because of the storm. Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich said Friday he decided against a state of emergency because his state has been so dry.

Ernesto's top sustained wind reached 70 mph, just 4 mph below hurricane strength, as it passed over land at Long Beach, N.C., just west of Cape Fear.

On the Virginia Beach oceanfront, all Friday shows at the American Music Festival were canceled. On Richmond's north side, officials ordered residents of more than 200 homes in the Battery Park area to evacuate because the area flooded earlier this week.

The National Weather Service canceled flood warnings for rivers in the western part of the state, but the James River was likely to flood in the east.

Also Friday, a team of hurricane forecasters lowered their expectations for the 2006 Atlantic season, predicting only five hurricanes instead of the seven previously forecast.

The forecasters, led by William Gray of Colorado State University, had predicted 17 named storms would form in the Atlantic basin during the June through November hurricane season. Team members lowered that to 15 in early August, and then to 13 in their latest forecast.

[Last modified September 2, 2006, 01:13:01]