As if this weekend’s monster nor’easter wasn’t surreal enough, residents of Surf City, New Jersey, looked outside and saw a shark swimming down the street.
Video obtained by ABC News shows a dorsal fin slicing through murky floodwater on Long Beach Island after the storm pushed Barnegat Bay deep into the coastal neighborhood.
“Is that a little shark?” a woman says in the clip. Then, as the animal turns toward her: “Oh my God, he’s coming this way.” Check out the footage below:
The shark reportedly cruised into a resident’s driveway before eventually heading toward Barnegat Bay. ABC consulted Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries shark researcher Dr. Greg Skomal, who identified it as a smooth dogfish, and said it was “a very small, harmless shark that is common in those waters.”
Floodwater reportedly reached roughly four feet in portions of Surf City.
The shark may be harmless. The storm certainly isn’t.
Related: Watch: 15-Foot Waves Hammer Massachusetts Coast During Monster Nor’easter
A weather station in Surf City recorded a 74-mph wind gust, while offshore buoys measured waves of 16 feet or higher along the Jersey Shore and southern New England. The National Weather Service warned Surf City of breaking waves up to 10 feet, dangerous rip currents and one to two feet of inundation above ground level in low-lying areas.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill declared a state of emergency across eight counties, warning of “damaging winds, heavy rain, significant coastal flooding, and resulting beach erosion.” She urged residents to “take this storm seriously.”
The destruction has stretched across the East Coast. Roughly 100,000 customers were without power Saturday, while rain totals reached several inches across the Northeast. In Brooklyn, 56-year-old New York City Housing Authority employee Leighton Brown was killed when a tree fell on him, the storm’s first confirmed fatality.
NWS forecaster Bob Oravec warned of “a lot of high winds, a lot of high tides and heavy rain” as the slow-moving system lingered.
But perhaps no image captures the insanity better than a shark in the streets of Jersey.
Related: Nor’easter Pummels Outer Banks With 18-Foot Waves and Road-Eating Floods (Video)
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