Miami: Tropical Storm Claudette hit Florida
early on Monday, lashing tourist resorts with strong winds and
heavy rain as the first Atlantic hurricane of the season
gathered power.
Claudette wreaked havoc in Florida resorts as Tropical
Storm Bill was re-classed as a hurricane by the US National
Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami.
Emergency response teams were activated in the Florida
Panhandle as the region braced for possible flooding.
"The main threat from Tropical Storm Claudette is heavy
downpours and isolated tornadoes today and tonight in the
Florida Panhandle and Big Bend counties," the Florida Division
of Emergency Management warned in a statement.
Up to 25 centimetres of rain was expected to fall in some
parts because of the storm.
Residents kept inside in the face of choppy seas and
pouring rain, but there was no massive stocking up of food or
other emergency supplies, according to local media reports.
The Hurricane Center said Claudette -- the first storm to
make landfall this year -- packed sustained winds of 65
kilometers and moved inland at the Florida-Alabama border at
about 19 km per hour.
The storm hit land near Santa Rosa island, just southeast
of Fort Walton Beach just after midnight, the Hurricane Center
said. But it was "expected to weaken to a tropical depression
later this morning," the centre predicted.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, August 17, 2009, 18:40