Nicole made landfall as a hurricane early Thursday near Vero Beach but the brunt of the damage was along the East Coast well north of there, in the Daytona Beach area.
WILBUR-BY-THE-SEA, Fla. — Tropical Storm Nicole weakened to a tropical depression Thursday night as it crossed the Florida Panhandle on its way north into Georgia.
Although Nicole's winds died down after it made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane at about 3 a.m. Thursday near Vero Beach, its storm surge slammed into the shoreline in the neighboring barrier island communities of Wilbur-by-the-Sea and Daytona Beach Shores, sending some homes crashing into the ocean.
Krista Dowling Goodrich, who manages 130 rental homes in Wilbur-By-The-Sea and Daytona Beach Shores as director of sales and marketing at Salty Dog Vacations, witnessed backyards collapsing into the ocean just ahead of the storm. "These were the tall high-rises. So the people who wouldn't leave, they were physically forcing them out because it's not safe," Goodrich said.
Although Nicole's winds did minimal damage, its storm surge was more destructive than might have been in the past because seas are rising as the planet's ice melts due to climate change, said Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer. It adds up to higher coastal flooding, flowing deeper inland, and what used to be once-in-a-century events will happen almost yearly in some places, he said.
The rare November hurricane could dump as much as 6 inches of rain over the Blue Ridge Mountains by Friday, the hurricane center said. Flash and urban flooding will be possible as the rain spreads into the eastern Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, and New England through Saturday.
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