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People walked along Hampton Beach Friday morning with an energetic dog getting some excercise before the big snow storm hits big on the coast.Deb Cram/dcram@seacoastonline.com

February 09, 2013 2:00 AM

HAMPTON The New Hampshire Division of Parks and Recreation closed all state beaches at about 1 p.m. Friday and they will remain closed until Sunday morning.

Local police have plans in place to deal with flooding that may occur as winter storm Nemo hits the Seacoast.

"They're calling for blizzard conditions with winds up to 70 mph," said Amy Bassett of Parks and Recreation. "This is one of those instances that we feel it's important (to close the beaches) because of what potentially can happen."

Hampton Police Chief Jamie Sullivan said police don't plan on going to the beach to remove people, but they can use the official closure as a "tool" to warn beachgoers with their public address system.

"They're not going to be able to police as much as they want," Bassett said. "If they see people out there (at the beach), they can tell people it's closed and that gives them ability to ask them to get off the beach."

That includes surfers, who may be interested in taking advantage of an extremely high tide. Hampton Police Lt. Dan Gidley said there will be a high tide of 10 feet expected for 10:08 a.m. Saturday and another 9.2-foot tide at 10:45 p.m. There will be "tidal surges" due to the nor'easter effect that could increase those tides by 1 to 3 feet, he said.

"We close (the beaches) when there's a storm of this intensity and it happens to match up with high tide and a full moon," Bassett said, noting the last closure was during Hurricane Sandy in October.

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N.H. state beaches closed until Sunday