The storm, packing sustained winds of 75 miles per hour (120kph), pulled down power lines on Thursday, knocking out service to more than 300,000 homes and business. About 44,500 homes and businesses remained without power on Friday morning, Poweroutages.us reported.
Nicole’s storm surge also caused the collapse of parts of the scenic A1A highway, which runs along the Atlantic coast in Volusia County, sheriff’s officials said.
As cleanup efforts got underway in Florida, Nicole moved north across central and northern Georgia on Friday after being downgraded to a tropical depression. It was still producing heavy rains and wind gusts of more than 35mph. It was expected to weaken into a post-tropical cyclone as it arrives in the western Carolinas later in the day.
The storm will further dissipate on Saturday as it dumps rain on the Middle Atlantic states and New England, the National Hurricane Center said.
Portions of the Southeast, the Appalachians, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio may get as much as 8 inches (20cm) of rain that could cause isolated flooding. The northern Mid-Atlantic up into New England may get 3 inches of rain, forecasters said.
Volusia County was among several East Coast areas hard hit six weeks ago by Hurricane Ian, a catastrophic Category 4 storm that initially struck Florida’s Gulf Coast, then swept across the state to the Atlantic, causing about US$60 billion in damage and killing more than 140 people.
Nicole was only the second hurricane on record to make landfall in the continental United States after Nov 4.
Hurricane Kate came ashore near Mexico Beach, Florida, on Nov 21, 1985, said Philip Klotzbach, a hurricane expert at Colorado State University, on Twitter.
The Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from Jun 1 to Nov 30.
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