Alberto strikes Gulf Coast with heavy rains, winds

Two die on edge of storm menacing Southern states

Subtropical Storm Alberto rumbled inland Monday after its Memorial Day strike on the Gulf Coast, driving holiday beachgoers away amid heavy rains that raised a dangerous flood threat around the South.

Forecasters warned that heavy downpours from the vast storm system are increasing the potential for life-threatening flash floods across north Florida, much of Alabama and large areas of Georgia — and elsewhere around the Southeast.

With maximum sustained winds of 40 mph. Alberto was crawling north at 10 mph as it began taking aim at the Southeast.

Authorities did not immediately attribute any deaths or injuries directly to Alberto.

But in North Carolina, a television news anchor and a photojournalist were killed Monday when a tree that had been uprooted from rain-soaked ground toppled on a TV vehicle as the two reported on severe weather on the fringes of the huge system, hundreds of miles from Alberto’s center.

The North Carolina Highway Patrol said a large tree toppled on a news television vehicle Monday near Tryon, N.C. WYFF-TV of Greenville, S.C., said a news anchor, Mike McCormick, and photojournalist, Aaron Smeltzer, with that station were both killed.

McCormick and Smeltzer had just interviewed Tryon Fire Chief Geoffrey Tennant as they covered storms in North Carolina.

“Ten minutes later we get the call and it was them,” Tennant said. The men died instantly, their TV vehicle’s engine still running, Tennant said.

More rain is on the way. Between four and eight inches of rain could soak the Florida Panhandle, Alabama, and western Georgia before the storm moves on. Isolated deluges of 12 inches also are possible.