Tropical Storm Nicole slowed after making landfall in the US state of Florida, meteorologists said Thursday, with high winds raising concerns that a long-delayed NASA rocket launch could be disrupted. The storm, a rare occurrence this late in the year, sparked mandatory evacuation orders just weeks after Florida was battered by Hurricane Ian.
But just an hour after Nicole made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane it was downgraded to a Tropical Storm, the US-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in a statement Thursday at 0900 GMT.
The NHC said Nicole was packing sustained maximum winds of up to 70 miles (110 kilometers) per hour.
The storm had passed over the Bahamas on Wednesday, with the level of destruction not immediately clear.
A tropical storm warning was issued for Florida’s eastern coast from the city of Boca Raton to the boundary between Flagler and Volusia counties, the NHC said.
Strong winds, dangerous storm surge and waves, and heavy rains continue over a large area,” it said.
Forty-five of the state’s 67 counties were under a state of emergency, Governor Ron DeSantis said, while four counties were under mandatory evacuation orders, according to the state’s Division of Emergency Management.
At least 60,000 customers in the affected areas were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us, with Brevard county being the worst hit
In preparation for the storm’s impact, DeSantis said 16,000 people had been recruited to respond to power outages and 600 national guardsmen had been activated.
The death toll from Ian, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the United States, stands at more than 100 in Florida alone. Nicole has raised concerns that a long-delayed NASA rocket launch could be disrupted again.
The storm is heading towards NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, located near Florida’s eastern city of Orlando, having already disrupted plans to launch the agency’s most powerful rocket next week.
Source: eNCA
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