Tropical Storm Nicole crossed the Florida peninsula on the morning of Thursday, October 10, after making landfall overnight as a Category 1 hurricane. The extensive weather system entered the state with strong winds, heavy rain, erosion, and coastal flooding as it moved northwest.
The National Hurricane Center reported that Nicole made landfall at 3 a.m. Eastern Time, the first hurricane to hit Florida’s Atlantic coast since Katrina in 2005.
More than 30 million people were under some type of storm-related alert, and over 300,000 homes were without electricity on Thursday morning, primarily in Brevard, Indian River, and Volusia counties along the state’s east coast, according to poweroutage.us, a website that tracks power outages.
Nicole is likely to cause more coastal flooding and some tornadoes as it moves north through Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas over the next two days, meteorologists say.