Tropical Cyclone Hermine

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Hurricane Hermine made landfall in the Big Ben region of Florida overnight causing a lot of power outages. It is now a Tropical Storm over Georgia. It will weaken for the next day or so then go back over open water and restrengthen over the unusually warm waters. As it gets off the mid atlantic coast it will be blocked on 3 sides and thus will be stuck there for days. It might stall or meander around maybe do a few loops but it will not leave the region.

Moderate to Major coastal flooding seems likely from Southern New England down to Virginia. This includes a lot of the areas devastated by Sandy 4 years ago. The winds will be piling up the waters for days. So even if the storm is reasonably far off the coast it will still cause problems. How much rain and wind and thus if the coastal flooding is bad or really bad will be determined by where the storm parks itself and what type of storm it is. A hundred miles will be the difference between lets say an inch of rain with breaks of sun and 20+ inches. Fortunatly the extreme amounts will stay out over the ocean but
a slight shift westword or north will mean flooding rains on the immediate coast. Same with the winds. If it is further off you will get gusty winds, closer enough to knock down trees and power lines especially because this will be going on for a prolonged period.

This gets a little more technical but the storm will be a mixture of a tropical system and a poweful nor'easter called a subtropical system. Pure tropical systems are much more damaging but the worst effects are over a relatively small area, a pure noreaster is not as intense but the damaging effects cover a much larger area and the most intense parts are often far away from the center. So how much the storm transitions into a subropical system is important.

For more information check the natonal huricane center website and the local weather bureaus.