Atlantic Storm Batters Coast, Soaks Fire Areas

An ocean-roiling storm buffeted the Atlantic Coast from Virginia to New Jersey on Sunday with powerful wind gusts and towering waves that flooded some beachfront homes. It soaked parched mountains in Appalachia, helping foresters gain the upper hand on wildfires there.

It was the second storm to hit the coast in two weeks, but was shaping up to be milder than its predecessor, which forced thousands to flee coastal areas and damaged property from Florida to Maine.

Officials worried that beaches and sand dunes eroded by the Halloween storm would not hold up to pounding surf, but there was no immediate report of serious damage. A home damaged by previous storms was toppled near Nags Head, N.C., and beachfront homes were flooded in Virginia Beach, Va.

“We are not looking forward to damage being as extensive as it was 10 days ago,” said Jay Hancock of the Ocean City, Md., police department. Minor flooding was reported in Ocean City.

Inland, the system produced a mixture of rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow from North Carolina and northeast Tennessee to southern Pennsylvania and southeastern Ohio.

As much as an inch of ice coated trees and power lines in West Virginia, causing widespread power outages. Many roads were impassable, authorities said.

But firefighters in fire-ravaged West Virginia were not complaining. Nearly 700 wildfires have burned across about 300,000 acres since late last month.

Up to a third of an inch of rain fell on West Virginia. The soaking allowed Gov. Gaston Caperton to lift a 2-week-old order closing forests to the public. Fires have burned 50,000 more acres in eight other Eastern states.

The storm produced waves as high as 20 feet along the Virginia coast, flooding the Sandbridge area of Virginia Beach, the National Weather Service said.

Greg Ambrose of Richmond watched the surf gnaw at a half-dozen condemned cottages at Sandbridge.

“I think my property is going to be worth about 20 grand more because it’s going to be beachfront soon,” he said.

The sun came out over North Carolina’s Outer Banks, where residents used bulldozers and sand bags Saturday to defend coastal homes against large waves that broke through protective dunes.