Tropical Storm Elsa, pushing through the Southeast, has killed at least one person in Florida, authorities say. Several others were hurt when a possible tornado spawned by the storm struck a campground at a Navy base in Georgia.
The National Hurricane Center said Elsa still packed 45 mph winds more than nine hours after making landfall along Florida’s northern Gulf Coast. The storm’s center was sweeping over southeast Georgia by 8 p.m. Wednesday.
“Now is a time to remember ... that weather is unpredictable,” Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said during a news conference Wednesday evening as he urged drivers to stay off the road. “This is really early in the season. We’re just outside of the July 4th holiday, we’ve had our first storm and, unfortunately, we’ve had a fatality.”In nearby Camden County, Georgia, a possible tornado struck a park for recreational vehicles at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base.
Cellphone video he filmed at the scene showed trees bent low among scattered debris. He said ambulances arrived and began treating dazed people trying to understand what had happened. “Clearly, this could have been worse,” the Republican governor said, though he cautioned that many storm-related deaths happen after the system passes.
The storm complicated the search for potential survivors and victims in the collapse of a Miami-area condominium on June 24. Regardless,in the rubble of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, on the state’s southeast coast. 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.