Downgraded Nestor heads away from Florida

Po st- t r o p i c a l storm Nestor made official landfall Saturday on St. Vincent Island near Apalachicola, bringing wind and heavy rain.

Earlier Saturday, as it approached the Gulf Coast, Nestor lost its tropical characteristics and become a post-tropical low pressure system.

The storm was about 10 miles east of Tallahassee, and s u st a i n e d wi n d s dropped to 40 mph, the National Hurricane Center said in its 5 p.m. advisory.

The 14th named storm of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season was heading northeast at 23 mph.

“The center of PostTropical Cyclone Nestor will move across portions of the southeastern United States tonight and Sunday,” the latest advisory said. “The cyclone is expected to move offshore of the coast of North Carolina into the western Atlantic by late Sunday.

Even downgraded, Nestor still packed a punch. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said several homes were damaged and Kathleen Middle School had a large section of its roof torn off when the tornado hit late Friday near Lakeland.

“Thankfully, we have not had any reported serious injuries,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a Saturday statement. “However, there are many people dealing with damage to their homes and property this morning, some of it severe.”

Other damage was reported in Cape Coral, in Southwest Florida, where winds damaged the roof of at least one home.

As of 5 p.m., tropicalstorm-force winds extended outward up to 240 miles from the center, mainly to the east of the center over Apalachee Bay and also off the Georgia coast.

By 5 p.m.,The Tropical Storm Warning had been discontinued for the Gulf coast of Florida.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.

AccuWeather estimates that the total damage and economic loss caused by named storms so far in 2019 is $22 billion in the United States and an additional $5 billion in the Bahamas.

The National Hurricane Center is not issuing any more advisories on Nestor.