Ernesto regains hurricane status, bringing life-threatening surf, rip currents for East Coast

Ernesto reclaimed hurricane status Sunday as it spun in the open Atlantic Ocean and created life-threatening surf and rip currents for much of the East Coast.

The hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm Saturday night as its maximum sustained winds, estimated at 70 mph, didn’t reach hurricane strength. But it regained strength Sunday, generating maximum sustained winds of 75 mph, above the Category 1 hurricane threshold of 74 mph.

Ernesto was spinning about 520 miles south of Halifax, Canada, according to the National Hurricane Center. It was moving north-northeast much faster than in recent days, at 17 mph, the center said.

The storm will intensify Sunday before it weakens back into a tropical storm by Tuesday, the hurricane center said. “The center of Ernesto will pass near southeastern Newfoundland late Monday into Tuesday morning,” it said.

New York City officials, concerned about rip currents, closed Brooklyn and Queens beaches to swimming through the end of Sunday.

In New Jersey, state officials warned beachgoers to watch for rip currents and keep their feet in the sand until a lifeguard is on duty. In Atlantic City, officials warned that high seas produced by Ernesto could combine with the high tide after 7 p.m. to produce coastal flooding.

On Friday, two men drowned in rip currents off Hilton Head, South Carolina. The victims, identified as Ralph Jamieson, 65, and Leonard Schenz, 73, died in separate incidents and appeared to be taken under amid rip currents, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

It wasn’t clear whether Ernesto could be blamed, however, as the waters off Hilton Head are subject to rip currents year-round, authorities said.

Also Friday, dramatic video posted to Instagram showed a stilted home along the North Carolina shore collapse into the incoming ocean waves.

No injuries were reported after the collapse in Rodanthe on Hatteras Island. The home was unoccupied, the National Park Service said in a statement. Officials from Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge urged visitors to avoid the beaches around Rodanthe.

The North Carolina coast from Newport to Morehead City was covered by a National Weather Service forecast of life-threatening rip currents.

The coast around Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to beyond Wilmington, North Carolina, was subject to the same forecast.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration buoys along the coast from North Carolina to Rhode Island measured wave heights of 5 to 6 feet Sunday evening.

Life-threatening surf and rip currents from Bermuda to Canada are possible for the next few days, the hurricane center said.