Hurricane alert as Tropical Storm Elsa hits Florida
Print Edition
The weather was getting worse in southern Florida early yesterday as Tropical Storm Elsa began lashing the Florida Keys, complicating the search for survivors in the Surfside condo collapse and prompting a hurricane watch for the peninsula’s upper Gulf Coast.
In addition to damaging winds and heavy rains, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center warned of life-threatening storm surges, flooding and isolated tornadoes. A hurricane watch was issued for a long stretch of coastline, from Egmont Key at the mouth of Tampa Bay to the Steinhatchee River in Florida’s Big Bend area.
Bands of rain were expected to reach Surfside on Florida’s Atlantic coast, soaking the rubble of the Champlain Towers South, which collapsed on June 24, killing at least 28 people and leaving 117 people missing. Search and rescue crews have worked through rain, but must pause when lightning threatens, and a garage area in the pancaked debris already filled with water on Monday, officials said.
Elsa’s maximum sustained winds strengthened to 95 kilometers an hour early yesterday. A slow strengthening was forecast through the last night and Elsa could be near hurricane strength before it makes landfall in Florida.
Governor Ron DeSantis expanded a state of emergency to cover a dozen counties where Elsa was expected to make a swift passage today, and President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for the state.
The storm surge could reach 1.5 meters over normally dry land in the Tampa Bay area if Elsa passes at high tide, forecasters said. Elsa’s westward shift spared the lower Florida Keys a direct hit, but the islands were still getting plenty of rain and wind yesterday. Tropical storm warnings were posted for the Florida Keys from Craig Key westward to the Dry Tortugas and for the west coast of Florida from Flamingo northward to the Ochlockonee River.
Margarita Pedroza, who lives on a boat off Key West, told WPLG that a stronger storm would have forced her ashore, but she was riding this one out. “Just batten down the hatches and get ready for it,” she told the television station.
“It doesn’t seem like it’s as strong as some of the other storms that have come around, so hopefully the winds won’t be as strong and maybe it’ll be some rain, but hopefully not too much rain,” she said.
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