Some local businesses in Wells, Maine, told AccuWeather's Tony Laubach Sept. 16 was one of the busiest days they've seen in a while, thanks to tourists coming to the beach to watch Lee's waves crash ashore.
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00:00 been checking in with many people on the ground and of course we've got
00:03 meteorologist Tony Laubach who is in Wells Maine. I don't think he ever
00:06 sleeps. Tony though you said it's a pretty much a party out there from what
00:11 I've heard along the beaches. It is a party and folks here we've been talking
00:17 about it you know that you don't want to take this storm too lightly. I'm gonna
00:21 tell you about a little danger that I didn't really think about till I was
00:24 setting up my camera. This is a clam shell. This came from the sky because
00:30 that little booger behind me here you see that little white seagull that looks
00:34 like he swallowed a basketball yeah he dropped this and nearly hit me in the
00:38 head with it. The seagulls are picking these clams off of the ground and
00:42 dropping them down into the sand to break them open so they can have a
00:46 little bit of a meal and you can have it. That is some of the one of the weird
00:51 dangers we're dealing with here really it's been the riptides and the waves
00:55 that we were talking about. If you were with me earlier we were in Wells Maine
00:58 you saw the waves that were battering along the seashore here. I'm gonna show
01:02 you some video from my buddy Aaron Rigsby who joined us briefly there in
01:06 Wells. This is his drone video and right at the beginning you see a little orange
01:09 dot that is me standing there getting ready for that live shot. We were talking
01:13 about big waves coming up and gets this. Bernie and I have had some conversations
01:17 on and off today that one of the impressive things with these waves was
01:20 the fact that you had offshore flow you had winds blowing against the incoming
01:24 tide and we still had waves that big enough to cover the road at times get in
01:29 some of the people's front yard. Certainly not major issues though as
01:32 most of the water was able to drain pretty quickly didn't have any traffic
01:35 snarls thanks to that but those were still some impressive waves enough so
01:39 where there was a constant stream of traffic driving up and down that road
01:43 people on their cell phones taking pictures that really has been the the
01:46 thing that will be remembered here in Wells will be the tides from this storm
01:50 kind of the early season nor'easter so to speak. Here on Wells Beach again we've
01:56 got people out and about you see the sun is out shining it's actually a really
02:00 nice beach day still got a little bit of that breeze coming out of the north
02:03 probably gusting maybe upwards of 30 miles per hour at times. You see some of
02:07 the spray off the waves behind me as the waves come in you see some of the spray
02:10 getting jutted back so we are seeing a little bit of that here with the
02:14 strength of some of these winds but that really has been the big issue for us
02:17 here for a good chunk of the day really didn't deal with a lot of rain here
02:20 either we had some off and on light rain early on but really for most of the day
02:24 pretty much most of the daylight hours dry from the sky again it was basically
02:28 the tides that were the big story here so that is some good news here we know
02:31 that we were expecting some impacts here and fortunately for folks here this was
02:35 more of a sight to behold and a minor inconvenience more than anything several
02:40 of businesses actually telling us that this was one of the busiest days they've
02:43 seen in a while thanks to all the tourists coming to the beach but things
02:46 quieting down for us here for the rest of the evening the riptides will still
02:50 be a thing for us for the rest of the weekend so don't let your guard down
02:52 especially if you're in the water but get out on the beach and maybe collect
02:55 some seashells and try not to get hit in the head with a clam. I was gonna say Tony
02:59 the next time you go out for hurricane season you're gonna need a hard hat so
03:03 put that in your hurricane preparedness kit because it seems like it's pretty
03:08 essential. Yeah probably a little bit more than just the AccuWeather cap there
03:13 but those birds they are tough. Well of course we have seen that landfall occur
03:19 with Lee as it's worked its way through parts of western Nova Scotia there it is
03:25 a Long Island western Nova Scotia there that's where that leaf landfall did
03:30 occur you can see though they did have some clouds over Maine at the time they
03:34 were still dealing with the rain so it's still a storm system as it continues to
03:37 to work its way northward here.
03:39 A tropical rainstorm lead.