Tropical Storm Nicole forces evacuations in Bahamas, Florida

(AP):

Tropical Storm Nicole forced people from their homes in The Bahamas and threatened to grow into a rare November hurricane in Florida on Wednesday, shutting down airports and Disney World, while prompting evacuation orders that included former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.

Hundreds of people sought shelter in the northwestern Bahamas before the approaching storm, which had already sent seawater washing across roads on barrier islands in Florida.

The US National Hurricane Center said the centre of the sprawling storm made landfall on Great Abaco island around midday with estimated maximum sustained winds of 70 mph.

“We are forecasting it to become a hurricane as it nears the northwestern Bahamas, and remain a hurricane as it approaches the east coast of Florida,” Daniel Brown, a senior hurricane specialist at the Miami-based National Hurricane Center, said earllier on Wednesday.

Nicol is the first storm to hit The Bahamas since Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that devastated the archipelago in 2019, before hitting Florida.

In The Bahamas, officials said that more than 520 people were in more than two dozen shelters. Flooding and power outages were reported in Grand Abaco.

The authorities were especially concerned about a large Haitian community in Great Abaco that was destroyed by Dorian and has since grown from 50 acres (20 hectares) to 200 acres (80 hectares).

“Do not put yourselves in harm’s way,” said Zhivago Dames, assistant commissioner of police information, as he urged everyone to stay indoors. “Our first responders are out there. However, they will not put their lives in danger.”

In Florida, the St Lucie County Sheriff’s Office said in a tweet that storm surge from Tropical Storm Nicole had already breached the sea wall along Indian River Drive, which runs parallel to the Atlantic Ocean. The Martin County Sheriff’s Office also said seawater had breached part of a road on Hutchinson Island.

Residents in several Florida counties – Flagler, Palm Beach, Martin and Volusia – were ordered to evacuate such barrier islands, low-lying areas, and mobile homes.