Tropical Storm Fred makes landfall in Florida panhandle with 65mph winds
As Fred moves into southern US coast, Grace tracks towards Haiti after country’s devastating quake
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Your support makes all the difference.Tropical Storm Fred made landfall along Florida’s panhandle on 16 August, bringing potential for a “dangerous” storm surge and flooding rains with 65mph winds along the southern US coast, according to the National Weather Service.
With winds slightly below the hurricane threshold, the storm is expected to weaken as it pushes into the US after gathering strength along the Gulf of Mexico, bringing potential threats of river flooding and tornadoes.
Tropical Storm Fred could bring up to 12 inches of isolated rainfall along Florida’s coast, with heavy downpours expected in Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas and “danger of life-threatening inundation from rising water moving inland from the coastline,” the agency warned on Monday.
Fred is the seventh named storm of the season and one of three Atlantic storms the agency is currently monitoring as the season bursts into action before its typical September “peak”; Tropical Depression Grace is expected to move towards Haiti, while Tropical Depression Eight – expected to be named Henri – formed near Bermuda on Sunday. That storm is expected to gain tropical storm strength on Monday.
Tropical Storm Grace – on a track towards Haiti following the country’s devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake that has killed more than 1,200 people and injured at least 5,700 others – weakened from a storm to a depression, with maximum sustained winds of up to 35 mph, but it is forecast to gain storm strength as it moves west.
Grace is expected to travel along the southern coast of Hispaniola on Monday before moving between Cuba and Jamaica on Tuesday, with the centre of the storm passing over Haiti.
The approaching deluge and potential flooding and mudslides could threaten search and rescue efforts as displaced survivors await aid and care from over-burdened hospitals under the intense August heat.
Haiti’s Office of Civil Protection reported the destruction of more than 7,000 homes, with thousands of other buildings, including homes, hospitals and schools reporting damage.
Updated guidance from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center predicts an “above-average” Atlantic hurricane season, with up to 21 named storms, seven to 10 of which would become hurricanes, including three to five “major” hurricanes with winds of up to 111 mph or higher.
The season runs from 1 June through the end of November.
“After a record-setting start, the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season does not show any signs of relenting as it enters the peak months ahead,” NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad said in a statement this month.
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