“We’re seeing a few roads flooding with some high waters,” said Escambia County Spokeswoman Laura Coale, who said some cars had been stranded. The county received two calls about trees falling onto homes, but no one was home at the time. Highway Patrol officials were to close both lanes of the Interstate 10 bridge between Escambia and Santa Rosa counties due to high winds. The accident report said wind gusts of 85 mph were clocked in the area. Debris from the accident, including a collapsed utility pole, turned into projectiles and struck a passing SUV, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. “We’re just thankful it happened after sunrise,” not overnight as people slept.Īn 18-wheeler hit several utility poles and flipped on its side during the storm early Saturday. “Nobody’s hurt,” said Sarah Whitfield, spokeswoman for Santa Rosa County, where the Florida homes were damaged. Residents of Pace, Florida, called 911 to report a possible twister that tore the roofs off two homes and damaged at least three others. The storm was forecast to cross into the Atlantic Ocean on Monday, and regain tropical storm strength over open water Tuesday. And even though the storm was weakening, the National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm watch for parts of the North Carolina coast, which could feel the effects by Sunday night. Parts of inland Mississippi and Georgia were getting heavy rain from Claudette as well. The National Weather Service issued a series of possible tornado warnings Saturday morning in north Florida and south Alabama. It was moving north-northeast at 14 mph, and most of the heavy weather was happening far to the north and east of the center.Īfter dumping flooding rains north of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana and along the Mississippi coast, the storm was inundating the Florida panhandle and, well inland, a broad expanse of Alabama. By mid-morning it was 75 miles north-northeast of the city with winds clocked at 40 mph. Saturday, well after the storm’s center of circulation had come ashore southwest of New Orleans. The National Hurricane Center declared Claudette organized enough to qualify as a named storm at 4 a.m. Thunderstorms and high winds on the east side of Tropical Storm Claudette battered the Florida panhandle and much of Alabama on Saturday, as the weather system moved toward the North Carolina coast.
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