Tropical Storm Elsa Continues Destructive Slog Up The East Coast

Tropical Storm Elsa is dumping torrential rains on the Carolinas on Thursday in its slog up the Eastern Seaboard, where warnings are in place as far north as Chesapeake Bay.

One person died Wednesday when a tree fell and struck two cars in Jacksonville, Florida, bringing Elsa’s death toll to four. The storm is blamed for three deaths in the Caribbean before it made landfall in Florida.

Elsa spun up a tornado in Candem County, Georgia, sending 10 people at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay to the hospital. Scott Bassett, a spokesman for the base, told The Associated Press the extent of their injuries was unknown.

The National Hurricane Center said in its latest update that though Elsa’s winds had weakened to around 40 mph, the persistent storm could strengthen as it moves closer to the Northeast. Elsa is forecast to become a post-tropical cyclone by Friday night. Such storms often continue carrying heavy rains and high winds.

The Georgia tornado that injured 10 people was an EF2, the National Weather Service said in a preliminary report Thursday after the agency’s employees surveyed the damage. The storm scattered debris from the RVs throughout the park.

“There were just RVs flipped over on their sides, pickup trucks flipped over, a couple of trailers had been shifted and a couple of trailers were in the water” of a pond on the site, Sergio Rodriguez, who lives near the RV park, told The AP in a phone interview.

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Rodriguez said cell phone video he recorded showed trees bent low among scattered debris. He said ambulances arrived and began treating dazed people trying to understand what had happened.

“A bunch of folks had lacerations and were just banged around,” Rodriguez said. “A majority of folks were in their trailers when it happened.”

The storm that already has dumped 8 to 10 inches of rain on Florida is bringing flooding risks with it as it heads up the East Coast. South Carolina was predicted to get 3 to 5 inches.

About 35,000 homes and businesses on either side of the Georgia-Florida state line lost electricity, according to the website poweroutages.us.

The storm complicated the search for potential survivors and victims in the collapse of a Miami-area condominium on June 24. Regardless, crews continued the search in the rubble of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, on the state’s southeast coast.

The storm also temporarily halted demolition Wednesday of the remainder of an overturned cargo ship off the coast of Georgia. The South Korean freighter Golden Ray capsized in September 2019 off St. Simons Island, about 70 miles south of Savannah. Crews have removed more than half the ship since November.

Most salvage workers were sheltering indoors Wednesday, said Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Himes, a spokesperson for the multiagency command overseeing the demolition.

Himes said crews would be watching to see if Elsa’s winds scatter any debris from the ship into the surrounding water. The vessel’s remains are open at both ends, like a giant tube on its side, and its cargo decks still contain hundreds of bashed and mangled cars.

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In Edisto Beach, South Carolina, Wednesday started out muggy and overcast.

“The kind of day you can just feel the weather wanting to move in,” Mayor Jane Darby told The AP.

The forecast for the barrier island 30 miles down the coast from Charleston was similar to a heavy summer thunderstorm — an inch or two of rain, winds gusting up to about 40 mph and maybe a little beach erosion. Other South Carolina beaches expected similar conditions, coming mostly overnight to be less of a bother to visitors during an extremely busy summer.

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“Businesses are struggling with workers in short supply a lot more than they are going to be bothered by this storm," Darby said. "That’s where the stress is now.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast Guard said 13 people were rescued from a boat that had left Cuba with 22 people aboard late Monday. Nine people remained missing.

Elsa is the earliest fifth named storm on record, said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.