Tropical Storm Nicole weakened to a low and left Florida late Thursday, but the effects of the former Category 1 storm are still unfolding — evacuation orders, the discovery of human remains, collapsed homes, roads and piers and four storm-related deaths.
Hurricane Nicole made landfall on North Hutchinson Island south of Vero Beach around 3 a.m. Thursday as a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 75 mph. Nicole’s arrival six weeks after Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida is dangerous for coastal communities already battered by a Category 4 storm.
Even after Nicole moved to the West Coast, the residents of Daytona Beach Shores Condominiums in Volusia County Ordered to vacate Because a sea wall collapsed. Other buildings are at risk, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.
[ MAP: Here’s the updated forecast track of Tropical Storm Nicole ]
The storm eroded the beaches so severely that homes in Wilbur-by-the-Sea fell into the Atlantic Ocean or were barely standing.
“It’s obviously not a significant storm like Hurricane Ian,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a Thursday morning news conference in Tallahassee about the devastating storm that hit Florida in September. “But when it comes to the background, you look at communities, especially in the Volusia County area, where you have a lot of erosion along the coast. This has put some structures at risk and they are working very hard to make sure everyone is safe.
Krista Dowling Goodrich, who manages 130 rental homes in Daytona Beach Shores as director of sales and marketing at Salty Dog Vacations, saw the shoreline hidden behind some properties as evacuations were underway just before the storm. He tried to visit the scene on Thursday morning to see how they were doing.
“While we were there the whole backyard started collapsing into the sea. It went up to the house,” she said. The water also compromised the remaining land between the nearby high-rise condominium buildings, she said.
[ RELATED: Anglin’s pier damaged, flooding widespread in wake of Tropical Storm Nicole across Florida ]
Officials in Daytona Beach deemed the multi-story beachfront apartment buildings unsafe and went door-to-door asking people to grab their belongings and leave. 24 hotels and condos in Daytona Beach were deemed unsafe and ordered to be evacuated. WESH-Ch. 2 report.
“These are high-rises. So people who didn’t want to leave, they physically evicted them because it wasn’t safe,” Goodrich said. “Now I’m worried about the infrastructure in the area, because if the seawalls are destroyed, they’re not going to let people go back … a lot of people will be displaced for a while.” .”
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Officials had warned that Nicole’s storm surge could destroy more beaches. A rare November hurricane prompted authorities to close airports and theme parks and order evacuations.
North of Volusia in Flagler County, high surf did not wash away homes, but a major road did.
North in St. Johns County, six miles of Water State Road A1A remain impassable, county officials said. In a tweet. Portions of Coastal Highway St. Augustine was crushed From the combination of Nicole’s storm surge and high tide.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said at a news conference Thursday that four people had died as a result of Nicole. Two people were electrocuted by a downed power line in suburban Orlando.
According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, a woman who was traveling with him was pronounced dead at the hospital after the two came into contact with a power line in the Conway neighborhood southeast of Orlando. According to News4Jax, another person was taken to the hospital after being struck by a downed power line in a flooded area of St. Augustine.
Demings said two more people died in a crash on Florida’s Turnpike in the county Thursday morning.
Nicolle’s Air An unexpected discovery was made On the beach at Hutchinson Island, it left a landslide — human remains. The Martin County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post that the remains of six bodies were believed to have been recovered from a Native American burial site in the same area.
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[ RELATED: Hurricane Nicole closures & cancellations: Everything you need to know ]
Thousands of people were without power Thursday night, with more than 52,000 outages in Brevard County.
On Thursday morning, the sun was out again in South Florida as the storm’s wind system dragged north. Some coastal neighborhoods were flooded, and a large section of Anglin’s Pier in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea disappeared.
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Palm Beach County lifted its evacuation order Thursday morning, which applies to coastal neighborhoods, mobile homes and low-lying areas.
[ RELATED: Hurricane Nicole unearths Native American burial site on Florida coast ]
As of 10 p.m., Tropical Depression Nicole was about 20 miles north of Tallahassee, with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph and moving northwest at 15 mph.
Nicole will move across southwest Georgia and the western Carolinas on Friday, according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center. It is expected to dissipate by Friday night.
Some locations were still under tropical storm and storm surge warnings: A tropical storm warning was in place from the Flagler/Volusia county line in Florida to Altamaha Sound in Georgia and Aribeka to Indian Pass. A storm surge warning has been issued for the Flagler/Volusia county line to Altamaha Sound, the mouth of the St. Johns River to Georgetown, and the Onclode River to the Ochlogonee River.
[ RELATED: Hurricane Nicole made history with November landfall in Florida ]
After the strike on Thursday A A rare November tornado, the Atlantic is clear of potential storms, according to the National Hurricane Center’s five-day forecast map. Hurricane season officially ends on November 30.
Information from the Orlando Sentinel was used in this report.
