On Tuesday, forecasters warned Tropical Storm Nicole moved toward the western Bahamas and Florida’s Atlantic coastline, gradually gathering power as it approached hurricane strength.
Late on Tuesday, Nicole accelerated to 70 mph (110 kph), just short of the 74 mph (119 kph) necessary to qualify as a Category 1 hurricane.
Several watches and advisories are still in effect. Hurricane Ian, which struck Florida’s southwest Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm in late September before dumping copious quantities of rain throughout much of the state’s central region, left many communities still reeling from its effects. Forecasters warned that places still recovering from Ian’s flooding could get significant rain.
The Abacos, Berry Islands, Bimini, and Grand Bahama Island all have hurricane warnings in effect, according to an alert from the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Additionally, a tropical storm warning was still in effect for Andros Island, New Province, and Eleuthera in the Bahamas.
Residents on barrier islands, low-lying areas, and mobile homes were instructed to leave by authorities in at least three Florida counties, Flagler, Palm Beach, and Volusia. On Wednesday, the evacuation orders are scheduled to go into force. Commercial operations at Orlando International Airport, the seventh busiest in the country, will cease on Wednesday afternoon until it is safe to resume flights, according to airport officials.
Volusia County Manager George Recktenwald declared that “both property and lives are directly threatened by this oncoming storm.” “Our infrastructure, particularly along the coastline, is very vulnerable because of Hurricane Ian.”
In the Bahamas, long lines formed at gas stations and grocery stores earlier Tuesday, said Eliane Hall, who works at a hotel in Great Abaco island.
She described the hotel as “simply boarded up,” saying that many residents were still feeling the effects of Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that struck in 2019. We continue to be impacted, she said.
The migrant community in Great Abaco’s March Harbor has grown from 50 acres (20 hectares) to 200 acres (81 hectares) since Dorian, according to Capt. Stephen Russell, director of the emergency management authority. Authorities said they were particularly worried about those now living in about 100 motorhomes in Grand Bahama after Dorian destroyed their homes. Given the vast majority of flimsy homes in which many people lived, the prior settlement of Haitian migrants was among the worst affected by the 2019 hurricane.
The hurricane center said the storm’s track shifted slightly north overnight, but the exact path remains uncertain as it approaches Florida, where it is expected to make landfall as a Category 1 hurricane late Wednesday or early Thursday.
Tropical storm watches are in force throughout Florida’s Gulf Coast from Bonita Beach in the southwest to Indian Pass in the Panhandle. The warning region also extends interior, covering Lake Okeechobee in Florida. The South Santee River in South Carolina is within the northern boundary of the tropical storm watch.
On Tuesday, officials in the Bahamas halted schools and government buildings in Abaco, Bimini, the Berry Islands, and Grand Bahama while opening more than twenty shelters throughout the archipelago. Authorities cautioned residents of shantytowns to seek safe shelter as the storm approached since several airports and seaports would close and not reopen until Thursday.
Communities in Abaco, who are still attempting to recover from Hurricane Maria, are anticipated to take a direct blow from Nicole.
“We don’t have time to beg and plead for persons to move,” Russell said.
Some counties in Florida were offering sandbags to residents. In Indian River County, which is north of West Palm Beach, shelters were set to open at 7 a.m. Wednesday, though no mandatory evacuation orders had been issued by late morning Tuesday, said spokesman Mason Kozac.
Any evacuations would be strictly voluntary, with residents “having a conversation with themselves about whether they need to leave or not,” Kozac said.
The mandatory evacuation order in Palm Beach County affects 52,000 residents of mobile homes and 67,000 residents of barrier islands, officials said in an afternoon news conference. Shelters up and down the coast were opening at 7 a.m. Wednesday, officials said.
Schools will be closed in multiple counties across Florida as the storm approaches. Some announced closures through Friday, already an off day because of the Veteran’s Day holiday. Other districts have said they would cancel classes on Thursday. The University of Central Florida, one of the largest U.S. universities with 70,000 students and 12,000 employees, was closing on Wednesday and Thursday.
Disney World outside Orlando planned to close its Typhoon Lagoon water park and two miniature golf courses on Thursday.
In Seminole County, north of Orlando, Hurricane Ian caused unprecedented flooding, and officials are concerned the impending storm could bring a new round of flooding and wind damage.
“Many trees’ root systems have become saturated by the water on the ground. At a news conference on Tuesday, Alan Harris, the emergency manager for Seminole County, warned that strong winds may knock down trees, and those trees could bring down power lines.
Forecasters in South Carolina cautioned that many days of onshore winds from Nicole could cause seawater to build up in locations like as downtown Charleston. It was anticipated that the high tide on Thursday morning would be higher than the hurricane-induced water level.
Tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 380 miles (610 kilometers) from the center of the storm, the National Hurricane Center’s advisory said.
According to Maria Torres, a representative for the Hurricane Center, just two storms have made landfall in Florida in November since records have been kept in 1853. The first hurricane was the Yankee Hurricane in 1935, and the second was Hurricane Kate, a Category 2 storm that made landfall in Florida’s Panhandle in 1985.
