A rare late-season hurricane is expected to hit Florida, after the Sunshine state dealt with the impact of Hurricane Ian a month ago.
Tropical Storm Nicole is expected to make landfall in eastern Florida this week. As the storm continues to strengthen, it is expected to make landfall as a category 1 hurricane on Thursday morning, reported CNN citing the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
“Heavy rainfall, coastal flooding, gale force winds and riptides will impact eastern Florida and the south-east US,” CNN meteorologist Robert Shackelford said.
The storm threat left much of Florida’s Atlantic coast under a storm surge warning. And a spokesperson for the NHC in Miami warned that Nicole’s effects would be felt far out from where it makes land, as the system has “a very large cyclonic envelope”.
Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, ordered a state of emergency for 34 counties in central and eastern Florida as Nicole approaches, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“While this storm does not, at this time, appear that it will become much stronger, I urge all Floridians to be prepared and to listen to announcements from local emergency management officials,” DeSantis said in a statement.
DeSantis’s statement added: “We will continue to monitor the trajectory and strength of this storm as it moves towards Florida.”
A hurricane watch is also in place for the area between the Brevard-Volusia county line south to Boca Raton, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
The impending storm comes as many are still recovering from Hurricane Ian, which about six weeks earlier became the second deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland US in the 21st century.
At least 114 people died during the natural disaster, with most of those who were killed having drowned. Damage sustained from Ian is estimated by experts to be about $55bn, with almost 18,300 homes either destroyed or severely damaged.
Several counties that were affected by Ian are now on guard for additional devastation that could be inflicted by Nicole.
“We need to take this storm very seriously because it could cause more coastal erosion, which could be devastating to our beachfront properties [affected] by Hurricane Ian,” the Volusia county emergency director, Jim Judge, told the Sentinel.
Judge added: “We’re also looking at rainfall amounts anywhere from 4-8in through Friday that could cause flooding, along with tropical storm-force winds that could cause widespread power outages.”
Experts have also pointed to the rarity of a November hurricane, with storm activity usually plateauing this late in the Atlantic hurricane season. But above-average ocean temperatures near Florida amid the global climate crisis have allowed storm systems to strengthen, creating another hurricane, CNN reported.
The last November hurricane to hit the US was Hurricane Kate in 1985.
