Tropical Storm Elsa kills one person in Florida and injures several others after tornado slams into campground at Naval submarine base in Georgia with wind gusts of up to 65mph
A weakened but resilient Tropical Storm Elsa killed at least one person in Florida on Wednesday and injured several others when a possible tornado struck a campground at a Navy base in southeast Georgia.
Authorities in Jacksonville, Florida, said one person was killed Wednesday when a tree fell and struck two cars.
The National Weather Service reported 50mph wind gusts in the city. The tree fell during heavy rains, and no one else was injured, according to Capt. Eric Prosswimmer of the Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department.
'Now is a time to remember ... that weather is unpredictable,' Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said during a news conference Wednesday evening, as he urged drivers to stay off the road.
'This is really early in the season. We're just outside of the July 4th holiday, we've had our first storm and, unfortunately, we've had a fatality.'
In nearby Camden County, Georgia, a possible tornado struck a park for recreational vehicles at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base at around 5.50pm. Wind gusts in the area were reported between 45mph to 65mph.
There was no damage to any sensitive military asset or submarines, he told CNN.
As many as 10 people were injured when a tornado touched down at an RB park at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base Wednesday evening
Sergio Rodriguez said many people were in the RVs when the tornado hit at around 5.50pm
Many of the RVs were later seen toppled over and broken amid bent trees
At least 10 people were taken to local hospitals following the tornado
Sergio Rodriguez, who lives near the RV park, said he raced to the scene fearing friends staying at the park might be hurt. The area was under a tornado warning Wednesday evening.
'There were just RVs flipped over on their sides, pickup trucks flipped over, a couple of trailers had been shifted and a couple of trailers were in the water' of a pond on the site, Rodriguez said in a phone interview.
Cellphone video he filmed at the scene showed trees bent low among scattered debris. He said ambulances arrived and began treating dazed people trying to understand what had happened.
'A bunch of folks had lacerations and were just banged around,' Rodriguez said.
'A majority of folks were in their trailers when it happened.'
A jogger made his way along Bayshore Blvd., in Tampa, as a wave breaks over a seawall, during the aftermath of Tropical Storm Elsa on Wednesday
Luis Ernesto caught a small wave while surfing along Pass-a-Grille Beach in St. Pete Beach, Florida on July 7, the morning after Tropical Storm Elsa moved over the Tampa Bay Area
A couple of signs hung loose on their post after Hurricane Elsa moved over Tampa Bay Area, which was spared major damage as Elsa stayed off shore as it passed by
Michael Ciarleglio with the city of Pinellas Park, cleaned up a few tree branches from the storm
People walked by one of two vehicles hit by a large pine tree in Jacksonville, where one person was killed by a falling tree
People walked by one of two vehicles hit by a large pine tree in Jacksonville, where one person was killed by a falling tree
Earlier in the day, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told a news conference that no major structural damage had been reported as Elsa came ashore in Taylor County, along the west coast of the peninsula near Tallahassee.
The storm brought wind gusts of up to 78 mph as it bared down on the area, according to Accuweather.
'Clearly, this could have been worse,' the Republican governor said, though he cautioned that many storm-related deaths happen after the system passes.
Elsa was expected to drop anywhere between three to nine inches of rain in western and northern Florida by the end of the storm, though Port Charlotte saw up to one foot of water by Wednesday morning.
There was also a risk of flooding in Georgia and South Carolina, which were predicted to get 3 to 5 inches of rainfall. Tornado watches were in effect in parts of northern Florida and southeast Georgia into Wednesday evening.
Valdosta, Georgia, and surrounding Lowndes County came under a flash flood warning as Elsa´s center passed nearby. Some roads and yards flooded, and nearby Moody Air Force Base reported wind gust of 41 mph, said county spokeswoman Meghan Barwick.
A man treaded water and waited for rescue crews approximately 32 miles southeast of Key West on July 6
The Coast Guard Cutter Thetis' crewmembers deploy the cutter's small boat to rescue people in the water. The U.S. Coast Guard and a good Samaritan rescued 13 people after their boat capsized off of Key West as Tropical Storm Elsa approached
Crew members aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Thetis provide medical attention to people they rescued from the water
Scattered power outages were being reported along Elsa's path Wednesday evening, with about 35,000 homes and businesses on either side of the Georgia-Florida state line without electricity, according to the website poweroutages.us.
The storm complicated the search for potential survivors and victims in the collapse of a Miami-area condominium on June 24. Regardless, crews continued the search in the rubble of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, on the state´s southeast coast.
The storm also temporarily halted demolition Wednesday on the remainder of an overturned cargo ship off the coast of Georgia.
The South Korean freighter Golden Ray capsized in September 2019 off St. Simons Island, about 70 miles south of Savannah. Crews have removed more than half the ship since November.
Most salvage workers were sheltering indoors Wednesday, said Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Himes, a spokesperson for the multiagency command overseeing the demolition.
Himes said crews would be watching to see if Elsa´s winds scatter any debris from the ship into the surrounding water.
The vessel´s remains are open at both ends, like a giant tube on its side, and its cargo decks still contain hundreds of bashed and mangled cars.
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite image taken at 11:50 p.m. on July 7, shows Tropical Storm Elsa located about 70 miles northwest of Tampa, with maximum sustained winds near 65 mph
The storm is expected to travel across the eastern seaboard, hitting New York by Friday
Areas in the mid-Atlantic and southern New England could see three to six hour periods of heavy rain
At the Hillbilly Fish Camp and R.V. Park in the south Georgia town of Waycross, Margie Freitag hunkered down Wednesday after pulling boats out of the water and picking up loose items ahead of the storm.
Freitag said she had plenty of supplies after stocking up for the coronavirus pandemic.
In Edisto Beach, South Carolina, Wednesday started muggy and overcast.
'The kind of day you can just feel the weather wanting to move in,' Mayor Jane Darby said.
The forecast for the barrier island 30 miles down the coast from Charleston was similar to a heavy summer thunderstorm - an inch or two of rain, winds gusting up to about 40 mph and maybe a little beach erosion.
Other South Carolina beaches expected similar conditions, coming mostly overnight to be less of a bother to visitors during an extremely busy summer.
'Businesses are struggling with workers in short supply a lot more than they are going to be bothered by this storm,' Darby said. 'That´s where the stress is now.'
Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast Guard said 13 people were rescued from a boat that had left Cuba with 22 people aboard late Monday. Nine people remained missing. Elsa was also blamed for three deaths in the Caribbean before it reached Florida.
Elsa is the earliest fifth-named storm on record, said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami.
The National Hurricane Center said Elsa still packed 45 mph winds - more than nine hours after making landfall along Florida's northern Gulf Coast.
Adalynn Powell,7, plays in the waters left behind from Tropical Storm Elsa in front of her home in Fort Meyers, Florida on Wednesday
Charlie Norwood, with Sea Hag Marina, returns boats to the top storage rack after taking them down for Tropical Storm Elsa
The storm's center was sweeping over southeast Georgia by 8 p.m. Wednesday and was heading northeast across the eastern seaboard.
It is expected to weaken to a tropical depression by Thursday, when it reaches the Carolinas, before heading up the mid-Atlantic coast.
It 'will likely become a tropical storm again' on Friday as the center moves along the east coast, where it could threaten New York City and Boston on Friday, according to CNN.
Areas in the mid-Atlantic and southern New England could see three to six hour periods of heavy rain, which could lead to flooding in urban areas, according to Accuweather.
The higher totals could reach into the two to four inch range, with six inches of rainfall likely to be limited to the Carolinas and southeastern New England from late Thursday into Friday.
The region could see gusts of 70 mph and storm surge of one to three inches.
More than 4.9 million people were under a tropical storm warning across parts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina on Wednesday, and a tropical storm watch has also been issued in parts of New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.