Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that his state is ready to confront “whatever post-storm needs may arise” as Tropical Storm Nicole makes its way through the region.
DeSantis said as of late Thursday morning, around 330,300 Floridians are without power and seven urban search and rescue teams are waiting to deploy as soon as the weather clears.
“Winds have been the main concern with Nicole, but we also have seen heavy rains that have resulted in three to five feet of storm surge in some areas,” DeSantis said.
“This is obviously not as significant a storm as Hurricane Ian was but coming on the heels of that you are seeing communities – particularly in the Volusia County area, where you had a lot of that erosion on the coastline – this has put some of those structures in jeopardy,” he added.
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DeSantis said towns and cities are reporting downed trees and power lines along with road washouts and beach erosion in some areas.
“We are ready and we have resources to respond to whatever post-storm needs may arise,” he added.
DeSantis also said “the most recent track shows it exiting the Florida peninsula into the Gulf of Mexico and then re-entering Florida in the Big Bend region.”
As of 10 a.m. ET, the National Hurricane Center said Nicole – which made landfall earlier this morning as a Category 1 hurricane – has maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.