New York City, Long Island, and southern Westchester County are under a tropical storm watch, which means we could see 39- to 73 mile per hour winds, as Hurricane Earl heads closer to the U.S.. Winds of 100 mph are expected to hit the Outer Banks in North Carolina tonight, and then Earl will continue north. Hurricane warnings was issued for Massachusetts and Connecticut was issued a tropical storm warning.
On Long Island, the Red Cross is prepping shelters while Long Island Power Authority is "bringing in 1,600 line workers from out of state to supplement its own force of 500 workers." One LIPA official explained to the WABC 7 why it's hard to bring back power when it goes out, "The electric system is what we call radial. In other words, there's not an opportunity to have a lot of redundancy in the electric system because it's a peninsula on an island." And on the Jersey Shore, waves are getting rough, but there are no plans to evacuate.
Of course, the prospect of Earl excites some people: Surfers. Those catching waves at Rockaway Beach yesterday told the Daily News, "It's gonna be double overhead on Friday - double your height!" and "Somewhere between New Jersey and Montauk, it'll be good. As the storm gets closer, the waves will definitely get bigger."
