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Hurricane Nate weakens to tropical storm as Gulf coast escapes worst Hurricane Nate lets Gulf coast off with flooding and some power outages
(about 9 hours later)
Hurricane Nate brought flooding and power outages to the US Gulf coast as it sloshed ashore outside Biloxi early on Sunday, the first hurricane to make landfall in Mississippi since Katrina in 2005. Nate killed at least 21 people in Central America. Hurricane Nate brought a burst of flooding and power outages to the US Gulf coast before weakening rapidly on Sunday, sparing the region the kind of catastrophic damage left by hurricanes that hit the southern US and Caribbean in recent weeks.
The storm hit the state with maximum sustained winds near 85mph but weakened to a tropical storm as it moved inland, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. As of 5am ET, Nate was centered about 80 miles north-northeast of Biloxi and moving north-northeast near 23mph. Nate was the first hurricane to make landfall in Mississippi since Katrina in 2005. It quickly lost power, diminishing to a tropical depression as it pushed north into Alabama and towards Georgia with heavy rain. It was a category 1 hurricane when it came ashore outside Biloxi early on Sunday, its second landfall after initially hitting south-eastern Louisiana on Saturday evening.
At one point, Nate’s eye move over Keesler Air Force Base, where the NHC hurricane hunter planes are kept, the center said. The storm surge from the Mississippi Sound littered Biloxi’s main beachfront highway with debris and flooded a casino lobby and parking structure overnight. By dawn, however, receding floodwaters did not reveal any obvious signs of widespread damage in a city where Katrina had leveled thousands of beachfront homes and businesses.
It was Nate’s second landfall. On Saturday night, the storm came ashore along a sparsely populated area in south-east Louisiana. Powerful winds pushed water on to roads and knocked out power to homes and business. But Nate did not have the intensity of Harvey, Irma and Jose during this busy hurricane season and people didn’t seem as threatened by it. No deaths or injuries were immediately reported. No storm-related deaths or injuries were immediately reported.
As the midnight high tide approached in Biloxi, Nate’s storm surge pushed over the beachfront highway of US90 on to the peninsula that makes up the city’s eastern edge. It flooded the parking structure of the Golden Nugget casino, which is closest to the peninsula’s tip. Water kept going several blocks deep into the area. More than 100,000 residents in Mississippi and Alabama were without power on Sunday morning, although some were starting to get electricity restored. About 6,800 customers lost power in Florida, Governor Rick Scott said.
“It kind of surprised us,” Mike Kovacevich, who lives two blocks north of US90, told Biloxi officials on their Facebook page. “We didn’t expect to be this deep. It come in pretty good a lot of water.” Mississippi’s Gulf coast casinos got approval to reopen in mid-morning, after closing Saturday as the storm approached.
Pascagoula also reported that storm surge flooded downtown streets in that coastal city. Thousands were without power in southern Mississippi. Outages were mostly concentrated on the eastern half of the state’s narrow coastal strip, in Harrison, Jackson and George counties. Sean Stewart was checking on his father’s sailboat at a Biloxi marina after daybreak. He found that another boat had sunk, its sail still fluttering in Nate’s diminishing winds. He was relieved to find his father’s craft intact. “I got lucky on this one,” he said.
Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokesman Greg Flynn said there were no immediate reports of storm-related deaths or injuries in the state. Roughly 1,100 people spent the night in shelters, according to Flynn, but he said he had not heard any reports of widespread damage to homes. Before Nate sped past Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula late on Friday and entered the Gulf of Mexico, it drenched Central America with rains that left at least 22 dead. But Nate did not approach the intensity of Harvey, Irma and Maria, powerful storms that left massive destruction during an exceptionally busy hurricane season.
“Thankfully, right now we have no major damage reports,” he said. “We are thankful because this looked like it was going to be a freight train barreling through the city,” said Vincent Creel, a spokesman for the city of Biloxi.
In Alabama, the storm’s rising water flooded homes and cars on the coast and inundated at least one major thoroughfare in downtown Mobile. Dauphin Island mayor Jeff Collier said he woke up around 3am on Sunday to discover knee-deep water in his yard. Although some homes and cars on the island had flooded, Collier said he had not heard of any reports of residents needing to be rescued from the floodwaters. Collier also said the water levels appeared to be falling as dawn approached. The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) said the four hurricanes that have struck the US and its territories this year have “strained” resources, with roughly 85% of the agency’s forces deployed.
Storm surge also flooded Water Street in downtown Mobile and a ground-level causeway across Mobile Bay. Alabama Department of Transportation traffic cameras show water still standing on both those routes before dawn on Sunday. “We’re still working massive issues in Harvey, Irma as well as the issues in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and now this one,” Fema Administrator Brock Long told ABC’s This Week.
Hurricane Katrina made its final landfall on the Mississippi coast on 29 August 2005, leveling many cities and buckling bridges. Casino barges were pushed into homes. Katrina was the last hurricane that made a landfall on the Mississippi coast, although both Gustav in 2008 and Isaac in 2012 affected parts of the coast. Fears that Nate would overwhelm the fragile pumping system in New Orleans proved unfounded. The storm passed to the east and Mayor Mitch Landrieu lifted a curfew on a city known for its all-night partying.
Nate passed to the east of New Orleans, sparing the city its most ferocious winds and storm surge. Its quick speed lessened the likelihood of prolonged rain that would tax the city’s weakened drainage pump system. The city famous for all-night partying was placed under a curfew, effective at 7pm, but the mayor lifted it about an hour after it had begun when it appeared the storm would pass by. At landfall in Mississippi, the fast-moving storm had maximum sustained winds near 85mph, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Nate steadily weakened after its first landfall in a sparsely populated area of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana.
Still, the streets were not nearly as crowded as they typically are on a Saturday night and Mayor Mitch Landrieu asked people to shelter in place. Some bars were closed in the French Quarter but music blasted from others. As of 11am ET the center of Nate was near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, with maximum sustained winds of 35mph . The NHC said the depression was moving to the north-northeast near 24mph. Nate was expected to bring 3in to 6in of rain to the Deep South, eastern Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachians through Monday. The Ohio Valley and central Appalachians could also get heavy rain. A wind advisory was in effect until 7pm CT for the Tennessee Valley.
Nate weakened slightly and was a category 1 storm with maximum winds of 85mph when it made its first landfall in a sparsely populated area of Plaquemines Parish. Governors in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama had declared states of emergency. The three states have been mostly spared during this hectic hurricane season. In Biloxi Willie Cook, 75, spent his morning chopping down a pecan tree that fell in his backyard. He said Nate was nothing like Katrina, which pushed 8ft of water into his house. “The wind was blowing, but it wasn’t too rough,” Cook said.
Officials rescued five people from two sailboats in choppy waters before the storm. One 41ft sailboat lost its engine in Lake Pontchartrain and two sailors were saved. Another boat hit rocks in the Mississippi Sound and three people had to be plucked from the water. Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokesman Greg Flynn said about 1,100 people spent the night in shelters. “Thankfully, right now we have no major damage reports,” he said.
Hancock County Emergency Management Agency director Brian Adam said Nate’s storm surge flooded low-lying roads, but he hadn’t heard any reports of flooded homes. “We turned out fairly good,” he said as he prepared to survey neighborhoods. “Until we get out and actually get into some of the areas, we really won’t know.”
In Alabama, the storm flooded homes and cars on the coast and inundated at least one major road in downtown Mobile. At sunrise in Pensacola Beach, Florida, a small front-end loader scraped sand off a parking lot and returned it to the nearby beach. Sand also was blown onto the decks of beachside bars and restaurants.
Officials rescued five people from two sailboats in choppy waters before the storm. One 41ft sailboat lost its engine in Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana and two sailors were saved. Another boat hit rocks in the Mississippi Sound and three people had to be plucked from the water.