Atlantic Beach Fire Deputy Casey Arthur said they knew Ernesto was going to have some dangerous effects. Arthur said because the storm is sitting offshore, it pushes the wave action up and with more water, the faster the current.
“We, we always warn people that the ocean is still the ocean, whether there's a storm offshore or whether there's a day where you think it's calm and maybe it looks calm. But it's not. That was kind of a little bit of an issue we had with this storm.”
Arthur said as the storm moves further away, residents and visitors still need to be mindful when swimming and stay informed on rip current protocol.
“So people should keep on high alert regardless of whether there's a storm offshore or not, if they're in the ocean.”
Local officials continue to monitor rip current conditions. Arthur said things are expected to return to normal, but strong currents are always a possibility in the ocean.
“As far as going forward, once the storm moves off, you know it'll be back to kind of normal business.”
The National Weather Service issued a high rip current risk for all eastern North Carolina beaches until further notice, and officials encourage beach-goers to pay attention to local beach flag warning systems.