Tropical depression Nicole now in Georgia, rain bands reach Clarksville

FRIDAY MORNING:
Tropical Depression Nicole was moving through Georgia on Friday morning after a day of causing havoc as it churned through Florida as a hurricane and then a tropical storm.

Rain bands Friday morning radiated westward as far as Nashville, Clarksville and Hopkinsville.

The remnants of the rare November hurricane could still dump as much as 6 inches of rain over the Blue Ridge Mountains, the National Hurricane Center said. Flash and urban flooding will be possible as the rain spreads into the eastern Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic and New England through Saturday.

Nicole had spent Thursday cutting across central Florida after making landfall as a hurricane early that morning near Vero Beach. The brunt of the damage was along the East Coast well north of there, in the Daytona Beach area. The storm made it to the Gulf of Mexico and eastern Panhandle on Thursday evening before turning north.

The storm caused at least two deaths and sent homes along Florida’s coast toppling into the Atlantic Ocean and damaged many others, including hotels and a row of high-rise condominiums. It was another devastating blow just weeks after Hurricane Ian came ashore on the Gulf Coast, killing more than 130 people and destroying thousands of homes.


ORIGINAL STORY:
Hurricane Nicole downgraded back to a tropical storm as it moved across the Florida peninsula on Thursday, and is now on track to affect the eastern panhandle region of the state.

The center of Nicole will move along the coast of the Florida Big Bend region for the next several hours before moving across the eastern Florida Panhandle.  After that, Nicole should move northward over Georgia later tonight, and then move through the southeastern United States on Friday.

Maximum sustained winds are near 45 mph with higher gusts. These winds are mainly occurring over the Gulf of Mexico to the west of the center.  Associated storms in the rain bands are as far west as Panama City, on into Georgia through Macon, and have advanced all the way to South Carolina.

Early Thursday morning, Nicole's 75 mph gusts and storm surge sent multiple homes toppling into the Atlantic Ocean and threatened a row of high-rise condominiums in places where Hurricane Ian washed away the beach and destroyed seawalls only weeks ago.

“Multiple coastal homes in Wilbur-by-the-Sea have collapsed and several other properties are at imminent risk,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said in a social media message. He said most bridges to the beachside properties had been closed to all but essential personnel and a curfew was put into effect.

A few tornadoes were also possible through Thursday across east-central to northeast Florida, the forecasters said. Flash and urban flooding will be possible, along with renewed river rises on the St. Johns River.

Heavy rainfall will spread northward across portions of the southeast, eastern Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, and New England through Saturday.

Nicole became a hurricane Wednesday evening as it slammed into Grand Bahama Island. It was the first storm to hit the Bahamas since Hurricane Dorian, a devastating Category 5 storm in 2019.