Emily weakens to a tropical depression
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. — Emily was downgraded from a tropical storm to a tropical depression Monday.
The depression was moving eastward over Central Florida on Monday afternoon and wasn’t going to hit South Florida directly.
Forecasters said, however, that South Florida could see about 1 to 2 inches of rain through Monday night.
The storm was 70 miles south of Melbourne and about 30 miles north of Sebring, the National Hurricane Center said in a 5 p.m. EDT Monday update. It was chugging along toward the Atlantic Ocean at about 12 mph.
The downgrade to a depression came after Emily’s maximum sustained winds dropped from 45 mph to 35 mph.
The tropical storm warning that had been in effect for Florida’s west coast was also cancelled.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott had declared a state of emergency for 31 Florida counties including Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade.
Tropical Storm Emily was a Monday morning surprise for Florida residents.
After an area of storms and clouds became a depression in the Gulf of Mexico near the Tampa Bay area on Monday morning, the depression then became the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season’s fifth named storm.
Emily made landfall at Santa Maria Island, near Bradenton, at 10:45 a.m. Monday morning.
“Floridians across the state woke up this morning to learn of a tropical system bearing down on our Gulf Coast,” Scott said in a statement. “This morning, I heard from state and county emergency management officials and there are no unmet needs or evacuation orders at this time.”
Scott said that state agencies were ready to respond. He said the state’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the Florida Highway Patrol had a 250-person response team ready to deal with any road closures or any other traffic issues. Scott said military support from the Florida National Guard as well as other state law enforcement agencies were ready to deploy if needed.