A surfer takes advantage of heavy surf from winds associated with Tropical Storm Colin at the Sunset Beach in Treasure Island, Florida. Colin was expected to make landfall somewhere along Florida’s gulf coast. (AP)
TAMPA, Florida — Tropical Storm Colin was expected to continue dropping heavy rains over the Southeast on Tuesday after moving across northern Florida, knocking out power and flooding roads.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency as the storm churned its way across the state into southeast Georgia, and The National Hurricane Center said Colin marked the earliest that a third named storm has ever formed in the Atlantic basin.
By 5 a.m. Tuesday, the storm was moving into the Atlantic, away from the Georgia coast.
Scott said in an interview that there were no reports of major damage, but the state will be tracking flooding from the sudden deluge of rain, much of which fell during high tides Monday. He said Florida had seen severe flooding in unlikely places after previous storms.
“We’ll just see how well it runs off,” Scott said. “I always remember back to (Tropical Storm) Isaac in 2012, it went west but we had unbelievable flooding in Palm Beach County.”
Colin’s maximum sustained winds Tuesday morning were near 85 kph with some strengthening forecast after the storm moved into the Atlantic. But National Hurricane Center said Colin was expected to lose its tropical cyclone status by Tuesday night.
The storm disrupted schools and summer programs. Many were dismissed early Monday, and two high school graduations in the Tampa Bay area were postponed due to the storm, with both ceremonies being moved to Wednesday night and Thursday.