Tropical Storm Nicole is making its way through Florida, battering the east coast of the state.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said in a 10:30 a.m. Eastern update that Nicole remained a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, making landfall overnight south of Vero Beach.
The storm is continuing to move through the state and is expected to exit off the west coast before reentering Florida in the Big Bend region. The effects of the storm are impacting communities far beyond the center of the track, however:
Some areas have seen three- to five-foot storm surges, as well as heavy rains, flooding, and downed power lines.
“We’ve seen beach erosion, especially in areas that had already seen erosion from Hurricane Ian, and these are places like Brevard, Volusia, Flagler, and St. Johns counties,” DeSantis said.
Indeed, photos show the impacts of the storm in some of these communities thus far, with roads literally being washed into the sea, and roads completely underwater:
DeSantis added that resources are ready for storm response and expanded the state of emergency to all counties, as they are not sure of the extent of the impacts of the storm statewide.
Currently, 2.98 percent of Florida is without power, but the state has 17,000 linemen staged and ready to respond, the governor continued.
“We’ve activated 600 National Guardsmen and have seven urban search and rescue teams on standby ready to respond as soon as the weather clears,” DeSantis added, noting that the storm “is obviously not as significant a storm as Hurricane Ian” but is having a significant impact due to battering the state just weeks later.
Because of that, “you’re seeing communities particularly in the Volusia County area, where you had a lot of that erosion on the coastline,” putting structures in jeopardy, he added.
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