Tropical Storm Elsa reached the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico in Florida in the late morning Wednesday — bringing heavy rains, causing power outages, and threatening high winds and floods as it moved.
Elsa swept across Taylor County in the Big Bend area at about 11 a.m. with a sustained wind of 65 mph ET, the National Hurricane Center reported.
The storm has already caused flooding in the west-central part of the state and is expected to hit northern Florida and parts of Georgia by Thursday evening before reaching the Carolina and the Mid-Atlantic coast.
In addition, strong winds in areas of northern Florida, Georgia and South Carolina could knock down trees and power lines.
Tropical Storm #Elsa made landfall in Taylor County along the North Florida Gulf Coast at around 11am EDT. Maximum sustained winds were estimated at 65 mph at the time of landfall.
Info: https://t.co/905zOAYiId pic.twitter.com/pIif2y3Ygu
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) July 7, 2021
“Last month we had a lot of rain. If wind speeds reach 40 or 50 mph, some of these trees will fall, «CNN meteorologist Chad Myers told CNN.
According to PowerOutage.us, more than 22,000 Florida utility consumers were electricity on Wednesday afternoon.
ELSA IN FLORIDA🌀 | Video from Pine Island, FL shows the storm surge that crested the sea wall earlier today.
Video by: @ tferguson10 | https://t.co/tvMVYIaQSv pic.twitter.com/u9E189QNMB
— News4JAX (@ wjxt4) July 7, 2021
In the morning in some parts of southwest Florida have also experienced flooding. The affected areas included the Fort Myers area, where floods have made some roads impassable, the National Weather Service reported.
Elsa was a Category 1 hurricane earlier Tuesday, but weakened again to a tropical storm on Wednesday. As a result, the weather warning is valid for 5 million people in the Florida, Georgia and South Carolina areas.
