Tropical Storm Nate
Gov. Scott declares state of emergency for northern Florida
might not be headed to a Florida landfall, but officials say the weather disturbance still could have an effect on Florida.
Tropical Storm Nate is expected to impact Florida this weekend with rain and wind, even though it’s not predicted to make landfall in the state.
Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday declared a state of emergency in 29 counties in the northern part of Florida.
Nate, which was still a tropical storm as of the National Hurricane Center’s 11 p.m. advisory Thursday, has been blamed for at least 22 deaths across Central America.
Scott said he is coordinating with the utility companies, along with local, state and federal officials.
“We have to take this seriously and get prepared now,” he said.
Scott said the broad declaration was because the path of the storm was still uncertain.
“It seems like this is going to impact all the counties that didn’t have major impact from [Hurricane] Irma,” Scott said during a press briefing at the Bay County Emergency Operation Center.
A tropical storm watch was issued for the Florida Panhandle counties of Escambia, Santa Rosa and Oskaloosa in the 11 p.m. advisory. The same watch stretches west to the Mississippi-Alabama border.
Kevin Rodriguez, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Melbourne, said Nate likely will not impact Central Florida, but people should still monitor the storm.
“The westward shift in the track is good,” he said. “The forecast looks better for us right now than it did [Wednesday].”
On Thursday night, it was over eastern Honduras, and heavy rainfall with life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides were predicted there and in portions of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Belize.
Nicaragua’s vice president and spokeswoman, Rosario Murillo, said at least 15 people had died there because of the storm.
She didn’t give details on all the deaths but said two women and a man who worked for the Health Ministry were swept away by a flooded canal in the central municipality of Juigalpa.
The government closed schools nationwide.
Nate is moving northwest at 12 mph with wind speeds of about 40 mph. It was expected to cross the northwestern Caribbean Sea and approach the coast of the Yucatan peninsula late Friday.
Nate’s tropical-storm-force winds extend out as far as 60 miles, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Costa Rica’s President Luis Guillermo Solis blamed two deaths in that country on the storm. Flooding drove 5,000 residents into emergency shelters.
Once the storm passes over the Yucatan and into the Gulf of Mexico, it is expected to strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane.
In Louisiana, officials ordered the evacuation of part of coastal St. Bernard Parish, east of New Orleans, ahead of the storm. Earlier Thursday, a voluntary evacuation was called in the barrier island town of Grand Isle south of New Orleans. The Associated Press and The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.