Parts of collapsed homes on the beach due to the high tides of Hurricane Nicole on Thursday in Wilbur-By-The-Sea, Fla.
John Raoux / AP
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John Raoux / AP
Parts of collapsed homes on the beach due to the high tides of Hurricane Nicole on Thursday in Wilbur-By-The-Sea, Fla.
John Raoux / AP
WILBUR-BY-THE-SEA, Fla. Tropical Depression Nicole moved over Georgia Friday morning after a devastating day as it moved over Florida as a hurricane and then a tropical storm.
The rare November storm could dump up to 6 inches of rain over the Blue Ridge Mountains on Friday, the National Hurricane Center said. Flash flooding and urban flooding will be possible as rain spreads into the eastern Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic and New England through Saturday.
Nicole spent Thursday cutting through central Florida after making landfall as a hurricane early that morning near Vero Beach. The aftermath of the damage was along the East Coast, north of the Daytona Beach area. The storm made its way to the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday night before turning north.
The storm left at least two people dead and sent homes along Florida’s coast into the Atlantic Ocean and damaged many others, including hotels and a row of high-rise apartments. It was another devastating blow just weeks after Hurricane Ian made landfall on the Gulf coast, killing more than 130 people and destroying thousands of homes.
Nicole is the first hurricane to make landfall in the Bahamas since Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 hurricane that devastated the archipelago in 2019. For storm-weary Floridians, it’s just the first November storm to make landfall. their sea since 1985 and only the third storm since records began. in 1853.
Nicole was sprawled out, covering nearly all of Florida in severe weather while also approaching Georgia and the Carolinas before dawn on Thursday. The tropical storm’s strong winds extended up to 450 miles from the center in some directions as Nicole turned north through central Florida.
Climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University said that although Nicole’s wind caused minimal damage, its high tides were more destructive than before because sea levels were rising as ice on the planet melting crystals due to climate change. It adds to coastal flooding, which flows further inland and what used to be a once-in-a-century event will happen almost every year in some places, he said.
“It’s definitely part of the ongoing picture,” Oppenheimer said. “It’s going to happen in other places. It’s going to happen all over the world.”
Officials in Volusia County, northeast of Orlando, said Thursday night that building inspectors had declared 24 hotels and apartments in Daytona Beach Shores and New Smyrna Beach unsafe and had ordered evacuations. surname. County officials say at least 25 single-family homes in Wilbur-by-the-Sea have been declared structurally unsafe and have also been evacuated.
“Structural damage along our coast is unprecedented. We’ve never experienced anything like this before,” County Administrator George Recktenwald said at an earlier news conference. , note that it is unknown when evacuees will be able to return home safely.
A man and a woman were killed by electric shocks when they touched downed power lines in the Orlando area, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said. Nicole also causes inland flooding, as parts of the St. Johns is at or above flood levels, and several rivers in the Tampa Bay area are also close to flood levels, according to the National Weather Service.
All 67 Florida counties are under a state of emergency. President Joe Biden also approved an emergency declaration for Florida’s Seminole Tribe, requesting federal assistance for the tribal nation. Many Seminoleans live on six reservation districts around the state.
Parts of Florida were devastated by Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 hurricane. Ian destroyed homes and damaged crops, including orange orchards, across the state – damage many people are still suffering. cope – and caused a storm to surge up to 13 feet ashore, causing widespread devastation.
