Tropical Storm Ophelia started as a coastal storm that forecasters had been monitoring for tropical characteristics. As predicted, the system strengthened to a tropical storm and made landfall in North Carolina on Saturday morning, causing flooding and power outages reaches farther up the coast all the way to New Jersey.
Heavy Downpours, Flooding, and Power Outages
Tropical Storm Ophelia may have lost intensity as it moved up the coast, but it still brought heavy downpours and threatening flooding from North Carolina to southern New Hampshire.
Ophelia carried wind speeds of up to 80 mph in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, enough to cause damage to property and trigger power outages. According to PowerOutage.us, almost 30,000 people were without power as of Saturday night.
The storm surge created a problem for a lot of areas as well. Major damage was done along the North Carolina coast where trees were downed and water flooded the roads. Farther north, Bethany Beach, Delaware reported storm surge flooding the streets.