Strong winds knock down trees and raise the tide along the Mid-Atlantic.
/ U.S.
East Coast Storm Begins to Move out to Sea
As storm moves off East Coast, flooding eases and bridges begin reopening
A powerful storm born from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida began moving out to sea Friday after raking the East Coast for three days, leaving behind it a trail of flooding, damaged buildings, eroded beaches and at least six deaths.
The nor'easter caused widespread problems in Virginia and the Carolinas before hitting the Jersey shore. Flooding was to remain a concern in coastal communities through high tide Saturday morning.
Several shops were evacuated in Washington, D.C., because of the threat of a building collapse possibly related to heavy rains. Construction work was under way at a row of buildings when the walls started to crack and separate.
Saturated ground after the recent rains may be a factor, the D.C. fire department said.
Several vessels carrying hazardous cargo broke loose from their moorings in Virginia during the storm. Crews were working to stabilize a 570-foot barge carrying containers of chemicals in the Sandbridge area of Virginia Beach.
Work crews boarded the barge and were riding out the storm with it, hoping it would run aground and could be towed away when the weather improves. A similar fate awaits a 700-foot oil tanker that broke loose and ran aground on a sandbar in the James River in Newport News, Va.
In New Jersey, bridges into Ocean City and Wildwood reopened by mid-afternoon after being closed for much of the day because of flooding.
"We think we got by the worst of what this storm is going to offer us," said Frank Donato, Ocean City's emergency management director. But between high tides very little of the flood waters had been able to dissipate, he said.
"Many of the neighborhoods in town are still completely flooded," he said.
No one in New Jersey was ordered to evacuate, and only about 100 people showed up at temporary shelters, said Nick Morici, a spokesman for the state Office of Emergency Management.
The storm wrecked dunes in several coastal communities including Ocean City, Atlantic City, and on Long Beach Island, where a beach replenishment project is partially finished.
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