Flash Flood Warning in Effect for New Hampshire, Maine Seacoast

A Flash Flood Warning is in effect for coastal areas of New Hampshire and Maine's York County as high tide nears and high water is expected.

Hampton Police Chief Alex Reno told Seacoast Current that the entrances to the Hampton Beach area were closed around 10 a.m. in anticipation of tides that could bring flooding that rivals Wednesday's.

The Flash Flood Warning is in effect for 1 p.m., and calls for "life threatening flash flooding with battering waves and heavy rainfall."

An evacuation center is available for Hampton residents at Hampton Academy on Academy Avenue.

The NOAA Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service expected the Atlantic Ocean to reach exceed major flood stage of 13.7 feet around noon during high tide at 12:19 p.m. Flood stage is 11 feet.

Water at the Portsmouth Naval Ship Yard (Seavey Island) is expected to crest above major flood stage at 12.6 feet during high tide. Flood stage is 11.5 feet.

Video posted by Station 51 on X showed roads beginning to flood at 11 a.m., with the gusty winds knocking power lines into the water on the street. A tree was also reported to have fallen on a house on Cusak Road.

The water was running so fast that road closure barriers were being knocked down, according to Station 51's tweets.

WMUR's Troy Lynch reported on his X account that Ocean Boulevard was filled with water and sea foam was quickly forming. Another video by Station 51 showed a pickup riding through the water, becoming completely covered by the foam.

The salt water in seafoam can be corrosive to vehicles and especially electronics, according to Hampton Fire Chief Michael McMahon.

Water should begin to recede at both locations as the afternoon goes on.

"Vegetation contact" was blamed for an outage in Hampton around 11:40 a.m., according to Unitil's outage map. Crews were already on the scene restoring power.

Power outages were building in York County, with 2,185 Central Maine Power customers without power as of 11:40 a.m. Saturday. The vast majority of those outages were in Wells.

The National Weather Service reports nearly four inches of rain fell in some areas of Nottingham and Exeter, and two to three inches around the rest of Rockingham and Strafford counties.

Share your pictures and experiences of the flooding with reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via X (Twitter) @DanAlexanderNH