Tropical Storm Nicole forced people from their homes in the Bahamas and threatened to grow into a rare November hurricane in Florida on Wednesday, shutting down airports and Disney World as well as prompting evacuation orders that included former President Donald TrumpB次元官网网址檚 Mar-a-Lago club.
Hundreds of people sought shelter in the northwestern Bahamas before the approaching storm, which had already sent seawater washing across roads on Hutchinson Island in Martin County, Florida.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the center of the sprawling storm make landfall on Great Abaco with estimated maximum sustained winds of 70 mph.
B次元官网网址淲e are forecasting it to become a hurricane as it nears the northwestern Bahamas, and remain a hurricane as it approaches the east coast of Florida,B次元官网网址� Daniel Brown, a senior hurricane specialist at the Miami-based National Hurricane Center, said Wednesday.
Nicole is the first storm to hit the Bahamas since , a Category 5 storm that devastated the archipelago in 2019, before hitting storm-weary Florida.
In the Bahamas, officials said that more than 520 people were in more than two dozen shelters. Flooding and power outages were reported in Abaco island.
B次元官网网址淲e are asking people to please take it (seriously),B次元官网网址� said Andrea Newbold with the Disaster Management Unit for Social Services. B次元官网网址淒onB次元官网网址檛 wait until the last minute.B次元官网网址�
Residents in several Florida counties B次元官网网址� Flagler, Palm Beach, Martin and Volusia B次元官网网址� were ordered to evacuate from barrier islands, low-lying areas and mobile homes.
Mar-a-Lago, TrumpB次元官网网址檚 club and home, is in one of those evacuation zones, built about a quarter-mile inland from the ocean. The main buildings sit on a small rise that is about 15 feet (4.6 meters) above sea level and the property has survived numerous stronger hurricanes since it was built nearly a century ago. The resortB次元官网网址檚 security office hung up Wednesday when an Associated Press reporter asked whether the club was being evacuated.
There is no penalty for ignoring an evacuation order, but rescue crews will not respond if it puts their members at risk.
Disney World and related theme parks announced they were closing early on Wednesday evening and likely would not reopen as scheduled on Thursday.
Palm Beach International Airport closed Wednesday morning, and Daytona Beach International Airport said it would cease operations at 12:30 p.m. Orlando International Airport, the seventh busiest in the U.S., was set to close at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Further south, officials said Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport were experiencing some flight delays and cancellations but both planned to remain open.
At a news conference in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis said winds were the biggest concern and and significant power outages could occur, but that 16,000 linemen were on standby to restore power, as well as 600 guardsmen and seven search and rescue teams.
B次元官网网址淚t will affect huge parts of the state of Florida all day,B次元官网网址� DeSantis said of the stormB次元官网网址檚 expected landing.
Almost two dozen school districts were closing schools for the storm and 15 shelters had opened along FloridaB次元官网网址檚 east coast, the governor said.
Florida Division of Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie said Floridians should expect possible tornadoes, rip currents and flash flooding.
Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis, who is at , said he has mobilized all government resources.
B次元官网网址淭here have always been storms, but as the planet warms from carbon emissions, ,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淔or those in Grand Bahama and Abaco, I know it is especially difficult for you to face another storm,B次元官网网址� Davis said, referring to the islands hardest hit by Dorian.
At 11:55 a.m. the storm was about 185 miles (300 kilometers) east of West Palm Beach, Florida, and moving west at 12 mph (19 kph).
Tropical storm force winds extended as far as 460 miles (740 kilometers) from the center in some directions.
It could intensify into a rare November hurricane before hitting Florida, where only two have made landfall since recordkeeping began in 1853 B次元官网网址� the 1935 Yankee Hurricane and Hurricane Kate in 1985.
New warnings and watches were issued for many parts of Florida, including the southwestern Gulf coastline which was , which struck as a Category 4 storm on Sept. 28. The storm destroyed homes and damaged crops, including orange groves, across the state.
Ian lashed much of the central region of Florida with heavy rainfall, causing flooding that many residents are still dealing with as Nicole approaches.
In Florida, the B次元官网网址渃ombination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline,B次元官网网址� the hurricane centerB次元官网网址檚 advisory said.
Hurricane specialist Brown said the storm will affect a large part of the state.
B次元官网网址淏ecause the system is so large, really almost the entire east coast of Florida except the extreme southeastern part and the Keys is going to receive tropical storm force winds,B次元官网网址� he said.
The storm is then expected to move across central and northern Florida into southern Georgia on Thursday, forecasters said. It was then forecast to move across the Carolinas on Friday.
B次元官网网址淲e are going to be concerned with rainfall as we get later into the week across portions of the southeastern United States and southern Appalachians, where there could be some flooding, flash flooding with that rainfall,B次元官网网址� Brown said.
Early Wednesday, President Joe Biden declared an emergency in Florida and ordered federal assistance to supplement state, tribal and local response efforts to the approaching storm. The Federal Emergency Management Agency .
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Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Associated Press reporters Zeke Miller in Washington, D.C., and Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.
Freida Frisaro And Danica Coto, The Associated Press
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