Tropical storm Ernesto was downgraded to a tropical depression
Friday morning as it was moving northward through North Carolina
into Virginia, bringing heavy rains that forced the evacuation of
hundreds and knocked power to many others, media reports
said.?
A state of emergency has been declared respectively in North
Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C., and
residents were warned of dangerous flooding and high winds.
In North Carolina, some 300 people were forced into shelters by
the storm on Friday morning, and over 1,000 families in the
Beaufort County were ordered to evacuate. There was one death
related to the storm in the state.
Nearly 80,000 customers were blacked out Friday morning in the
eastern half of North Carolina, and nearly 150,000 customers were
without power in Virginia, mostly in the state's southeast
corner.
Schools throughout southeastern Virginia were closed Friday, and
sandbags were distributed in Annapolis, the capital city of
Maryland, and in Washington.
Ernesto came ashore near Long Beach, North Carolina, just before
midnight Thursday, with maximum sustained winds at 70 mph (112
kph), just below the 74 mph (118.4 kph) that defines a Category 1
hurricane. The storm weakened as it moved inland and its sustained
winds dropped to below the 39 mph (62.4 kph) threshold for a
tropical storm.
Ernesto, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season this year,
had strengthened into a hurricane for about 10 hours before it was
downgraded to a tropical storm Sunday afternoon.
(Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2006)
