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Eta races off to sea from Carolinas after soaking Florida

Published:Friday | November 13, 2020 | 9:33 AM
Garry Sears, 75, starts the process of cleaning up his garage which was tossed by more than a foot of storm surge which entered the garage overnight at his home on Shore Drive E. Thursday, November 12, 2020, in Oldsmar, Florida, in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Eta. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) — The former Tropical Storm Eta was classified as a post-tropical cyclone early Friday, racing off the Southeast Atlantic coast and bringing heavy rains and gusty winds to the Carolinas after blustering across north Florida.

One death in Florida was linked to the storm, along with some scattered flooding, and forecasters said the system was on a path offshore of South Carolina that is expected to take it further out to sea.

Early Friday, the storm was centred about 85 miles southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina. It had top sustained winds of 45 miles per hour and was moving to the east-northeast at 21  miles per hour.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Eta — which was now an extra-tropical low — was expected to pick up forward speed in the next day or so as it pulls away from the Southeast seaboard.

The storm system triggered flash flooding, multiple water rescues and road closures, and at least one collapsed bridge in South Carolina, said Sandy LaCourte, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Greenville, South Carolina.

Some parts of the Carolinas saw three to seven inches of rainfall already by Thursday afternoon with more expected.

That came amid a combination of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico being carried up by a cold front that had pushed Eta across Florida earlier.

Earlier Thursday, Eta was in the Gulf of Mexico when it slogged ashore near Cedar Key, Florida.

It then moved northeast across Florida in a matter of hours before crossing over into the Atlantic, forecasters said.

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