Deadly Tropical Storm Nate aims for Fla., La.
It could slam coast this weekend at hurricane strength
Tropical Storm Nate drenched Central America with heavy rain Thursday, killing 22 people as it tracks toward a likely U.S. landfall this weekend as a hurricane.
Nate is forecast to reach the northern Gulf Coast at hurricane strength this weekend before making landfall early Sunday somewhere between southeast Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle, bringing the threat of wind, storm surge and heavy rainfall.
As of 8 p.m. ET, Nate was over eastern Honduras, roughly 390 miles south-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico. The storm was moving northwest at 10 mph, packing maximum sustained winds of 40 mph. By late Friday, Nate is expected to approach the east coast of the Yucatan peninsula, where a hurricane watch is in effect.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for portions of Nicaragua and Honduras. Up to 30 inches of rain is forecast in Nicaragua, which could lead to life-threaten- ing flash floods, the National Hurricane Center said.
Officials in Louisiana, including Gov. John Bel Edwards and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu planned to meet Thursday afternoon to discuss preparations. Grand Isle, La., on a barrier island south of New Orleans, called for a voluntary evacuation.
“Since the system will be moving over very warm waters, we could quickly have a powerful hurricane on our hands,” AccuWeather meteorologist Dan Kottlowski said.
The hurricane center’s map shows a cone of the storm’s probable path extending from southeast Louisiana to a western portion of the Florida Panhandle. That would spare areas hardesthit by Hurricanes Irma and Harvey.
The storm popped up rather quickly, unlike recent hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, which built steam over the wide Atlantic for weeks before hitting land.
But that isn’t unusual this time of year: Fall storms such as Nate, which formed in the Caribbean, tend to pop up quickly, making them harder to track, said Jack Cullen of the National Weather Service in Mobile, Ala.