Weather
Hurricane Nate Whimpers, Downgraded To Tropical Depression; New Storm Forming
Nate, downgraded to a tropical depression, brings heavy rains as it moves inland, new tropical storm has a 70 percent chance of developing.
MOBILE, AL — Fast-moving Hurricane Nate weakened overnight and was downgraded to a tropical storm and later a tropical depression after making landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi. The 14th named storm in a busy hurricane season, Nate lacked some of the power of previous storms Harvey, Irma and Maria, but still fueled storm surges of 4 and 5 feet along several Gulf Coast cities in Mississippi and southern Alabama, where it threatened tornadoes.
The storm, which early in its life caused nearly two dozen deaths in Central America, brushed southeast Louisiana about 7 p.m. local time Saturday as a Category 1 hurricane, and then moved on to Mississippi, where it made a second landfall around 12:30 a.m. near Biloxi. Storm surges of up to 6 feet were reported in some communities, including Biloxi, Mississippi, and Mobile, Alabama.
In the latest Sunday update, the National Hurricane Center said Nate's winds had dropped to 45 mph after coming ashore as a hurricane in Mississippi. The storm was "rapidly weakening," the center said in the advisory, though heavy rains and storm surge flooding would continue along the Gulf Coast until gradually subsiding Sunday afternoon. By then, winds had dropped to 35 mph. (For more updates on this story and free news alerts for your neighborhood, sign up for real-time news alerts and the free morning news letter from your local Alabama Patch. Live somewhere else? Find your local Patch here.)
Nate's biggest threat as the storm moves inland now appears to be heavy rain across the Northeast. Anywhere from 1 to 3 inches is forecast in Rochester and Albany New York; Allentown and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and areas from New York to Boston, according to AccuWather.com. Some locally higher amounts may fall in the Appalachians of West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The swath of heaviest rain in the Northeast is expected across the interior. Watches and warnings in the coastal states have all been canceled.
The depression dropped rain across Florida and Georgia and into the southern Appalachian Mountains on Sunday, and is expected to bring heavy downpours to the Ohio Valley and continue into the Northeast before exiting Maine on Tuesday.
But as Nate whimpers to an end, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said a "well-defined" system in the Atlantic Ocean about 800 miles off the coast of the Azores has a 70 percent chance of developing into a hurricane, which would further pressure the already "strained" resources of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Brock Long, the head of agency said on ABC's "This Week" Sunday that about 85 percent of the agency's forces were deployed and still working on issues created by hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria and now Nate.
No U.S. deaths have been reported from the storm, though Nate has been blamed for about two dozen deaths in Central America early in its life.
The storm moved fast, sprinting across the Gulf of Mexico faster than any hurricane on record, the National Weather Service said. Its quick speed spared New Orleans of ferocious winds, powerful storm surges and prolonged rain that would have taxed the city’s weakened drainage pump system. On Sunday morning, tropical storm and storm surge warnings were canceled.
The Mississippi Sound littered Biloxi's main beachfront highway with debris and flooded a casino's lobby and parking structure overnight. Receding floodwaters didn't reveal any obvious signs of widespread damage in the city where Hurricane Katrina had leveled thousands of beachfront homes and businesses.
In Jackson County, Mississippi, emergency officials were assessing the damage on Sunday morning, finding flooding on many streets with more expected as the storm surge moves in. The good news, officials said, is that it wasn't nearly as bad as they had feared.
Before the storm, federal environmental officials released 40 million gallons of partially treated wastewater from a shuttered chemical plant in Mississippi amid brings heavy rainfall to the area and would cause a worse spill. The material was left over from when the Mississippi Phosphates plant in Pascagoula declared bankruptcy and closed three years ago. The site has had environmentally harmful spills in the past.
Thousands were still without power in southern Mississippi, with outages mostly concentrated on the eastern half of the state’s narrow coastal strip. About 1,100 Mississippi residents spent the night in shelters, according to Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokesman Greg Flynn. Damage to homes appeared to have been minimal.
"Thankfully, right now we have no major damage reports," he said.
In Alabama, some homes and cars on the coast reported flooding, and at least one downtown Mobile thoroughfare was flooded. Some 71,000 customers in Alabama, mostly in Mobile, are without power as the storm moves north.
Also in Alabama, Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier said he woke up around 3 a.m. Sunday to discover knee-deep water in his yard. Although some homes and cars on the island had flooded, Collier said he hadn't heard of any reports of residents needing to be rescued from the floodwaters.
In Florida, thousands of residents in the Panhandle lost power.
See Also:
- Hurricane Nate Starting To Weaken As It Passes Over Alabama
- Hurricane Nate: Florida Panhandle Counties Under Flash Flood Watch
A pair of water rescues took place Saturday as Nate kicked up high waves and winds earlier Saturday. The first rescue was around noon Saturday, when the Coast Guard helped two people off a 41-foot sailboat that lost its engine on Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana. At 3 p.m. Saturday, the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources answered a distress call after a sailboat struck rocks at Bayou Caddy west of Waveland and plucked three people from the water.
As New Orleans braced for the storm, Mayor Mitch Landrieu had implemented a 7 p.m. curfew, but called it off about an hour later, the Times-Picyaune reported. The city's intricate network of storm pumps had been severely tested by previous storms and several were down for maintenance as Nate approached. Power outages in Louisiana were sparse.
A cold front Sunday night into Monday is expected to pull Nate across the eastern United States, and heavy rain is possible early next week from the Gulf Coast to the Mid-Atlantic.
In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey warned residents that Nate is not only a threat to coastal areas, where winds of 75 mph and gusts to 90 mph are expected. Wide-spread power outages could hit far inland, officials said, with 35-45 mph winds and gusts up to 60 mph predicted for the western portion of the state near the Birmingham and Gadsden region.
"Friends, we must take this threat seriously," Ivey said. "All Alabamians must make sure that they and their families are well prepared."
Nate pounded Central America with tremendous rainfall, causing flooding and mudslides in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras, where — in addition to the 22 fatalities — many people were reported missing.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Photo: News crews film a sailboat that washed ashore along the Gulf of Mexico in Biloxi, Mississippi, in the aftermath of Hurricane Nate, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2017. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
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