Alberto remnants leave flooding in wake
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The soggy remnants of Alberto moved toward the nation’s interior Tuesday, leaving scattered flooding and downed trees in the wake of the year’s first named tropical storm.
More than 25,000 power outages were reported in Alabama, many caused by trees rooted in soggy soil falling across utility lines.
But while forecasters said the subtropical depression could dump as much as 6 inches of rain inland, few major problems were reported so far.
“We’ve had a lot of rain, but we got lucky. It was a constant rain but not a heavy rain,” said Regina Myers, emergency management director in Walker County northwest of Birmingham.
Subtropical storm Alberto rolled ashore Monday afternoon in the Florida Panhandle and then weakened overnight to a depression. Beachcombers had returned to the white sands of the Northern Gulf by Tuesday morning, but forecasters still warned of dangerous currents.
In the Chattanooga area, Alberto was expected to bring more wet weather, with scattered rain and storms possible today. Thursday and Friday also could see some more rain, according to WRCB News Channel 3 Chief Meteorologist Paul Barys.
Saturday should be fairly dry, Barys said, and after that, the weather pattern will return to the regular summer scattered showers.
The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings across most of northern Alabama and Georgia and Southeast Tennessee through this morning. But the floods were expected to be localized and remain in flood prone, low-lying areas.
TVA said it does not anticipate the heavy rains will push any reservoir levels to flood stage. It also said it did not anticipate major power outages as the storm moves north, although local distributors could face some electrical delivery problems and flash floods.