A powerful nor'easter tore through the Northeast on Saturday, lashing the Mid-Atlantic and New England coastlines with driving rain, punishing winds and coastal flooding that left water climbing the front steps of seaside homes and knocked out power to large stretches of the region. Forecasters said the dangerous combination of winds and rain would continue through the weekend, keeping emergency officials and residents on edge well into Sunday.
The storm moved in fast. By Saturday morning, waves were already lapping halfway up the steps of Talia Manno's Atlantic City, New Jersey, home — a scene familiar to anyone who has stood on that narrow barrier island in a coastal storm, but startling nonetheless for someone who has lived there her whole life. Manno said the water reached what she counted as her fifth step, and that she was genuinely frightened by the sight when she opened her door.
For Manno, the flooding triggered an immediate comparison to Hurricane Sandy, the destructive 2012 superstorm that devastated the New Jersey shoreline and pushed seawater into neighborhoods far inland. The last time she saw water rise that high at her house, she said, it was during that storm. Even people who are accustomed to high tides and recurring coastal flooding, she noted, found the rapid onset unnerving: the water climbed so quickly that there was little time to react or to move belongings.
That sense of preparation — or the lack of it — runs through the region's response. In one image from the early stages of the storm on Friday, John Garrisi and Gaige Graf were photographed hauling an outdoor table away from a shoreline as the wind picked up. The photograph, by Robert F. Bukaty of The Associated Press, captures a small but telling ritual: residents securing the objects that sit closest to the water before the worst of the storm arrives.
The same impulse runs through the wider story NPR told this weekend, which looked at how East Coast residents are carrying on with their lives amid the rough conditions — from events and celebrations that carry on despite howling winds, to boating and coastal routines that become markedly more difficult when seas turn rocky. The through-line is adaptation rather than avoidance: for communities where the sea is both a livelihood and a threat, standing still is often less realistic than adjusting to the forecast.
Meteorologically, nor'easters are coastal storms whose winds rotate counterclockwise over the Northeast, drawing cold air over relatively warm Atlantic water and gaining strength as they move northward along the shoreline. Because their winds blow onshore for long stretches, they pile water toward the coast, producing storm surge that combines with heavy rain to overwhelm low-lying ground. The flooding Manno described is that surge working against a coastline with few natural barriers — Atlantic City sits on a narrow strip of land bordered by the ocean on one side and bays on the other, leaving little room for water to move inland before it begins pooling.
The storm's timing, arriving over a weekend, complicates the picture further. A mid-week flood can be absorbed by utility crews, school systems and workplaces; a weekend storm can stretch outages longer, because repairs begin after the worst of the weather passes and crews must first make safe. In many coastal communities, power is the hinge on which everything else turns — water service, heat, refrigeration, medical equipment and communications all depend on it. Saturday's widespread outages meant many households entered the night without electricity, and with more rain and wind forecast, some residents could face a second difficult day without power.
Forecasters' expectation of significant winds and rain throughout the weekend is the key reason to treat Saturday's damage as provisional rather than final. Coastal erosion and flooding often peak with the highest tides, and conditions can worsen before they improve, particularly where storm surge coincides with astronomical high tide. Residents who moved tables, boats and valuables on Friday may find the water's reach on Saturday or Sunday exceeds anything they saw the day before.
Even as the Northeast deals with wind and water, a second storm system is drawing attention in the Pacific. Hurricane Nolo was captured approaching Hawaii's islands in a satellite image on Friday. Nolo is expected to avoid making landfall as it strengthens, but forecasters warn that it will still bring dangerous flooding rains to the islands. The pairing of headlines — a nor'easter hammering the East Coast and a hurricane threatening heavy rain in Hawaii — underscores a weekend shaped by weather on both coasts of the country.
For residents like Manno, the practical takeaway is that familiar reference points can be misleading. Sandy, the last benchmark, was a rare, historic event; a fast-moving nor'easter can produce comparable water levels without arriving as a hurricane, and can do so in a matter of hours. That combination of speed and severity is what leaves long-time coastal residents checking the water at their doors and then, sometimes, simply trying to get through the day.
NPR's coverage of the storm, reported by Ava Berger and Scott Simon and broadcast on Weekend Edition Saturday, included a segment on the nor'easter's assault on Mid-Atlantic and New England coastlines alongside the Hawaii hurricane threat. As the weekend continues, the questions residents are watching are the same ones forecasters are: how much more water will come ashore, how long the wind will keep pushing it there, and when the lights will come back on.
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