Story at a glance
- After making landfall on Wednesday, Tropical Storm Elsa will move northward this week.
- Thousands of homes in the South have power outage issues in the wake of Elsa, with one Floridian dead.
- Heavy rainfall and flash flooding are expected for states farther north.
Tropical Storm Elsa is making its way up the East Coast of the U.S., hovering over North Carolina after ripping through Florida, Georgia and South Carolina earlier this week.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) reports that Elsa will track across North Carolina and Virginia on Thursday, July 8, bringing heavy rainfall and limited flash and urban flooding among lower sea level areas.
Rains are also likely to occur in the Mid-Atlantic states and New England by Friday, July 9, as Elsa continues tracking northward. Current maximum sustained winds stand at 45 miles per hour.
“Tropical storm conditions are expected along portions of the North Carolina coast today and the mid-Atlantic coast by this afternoon or tonight,” NHC meteorologists write. Gusty winds are also anticipated over parts of Canada’s Atlantic coast on Friday evening and Saturday.
At the time of this story’s publication, more than 12,700 customers are dealing with power outages between Florida, South Carolina and Georgia, per national data. USA Today notes that a total of 27 million Americans are under a tropical storm warning across Elsa’s projected path.
The storm made landfall on Wednesday in Florida, rearing up the Gulf Coast of the state, where it was expected to gain strength and potentially become a hurricane.
Tropical Storm Elsa remained just that, however, despite capsizing a boat in Florida, which resulted in nine missing passengers, and killing one person in Jacksonville after a tree fell atop two cars.
Given these dangers, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) advised residents to prepare for power outages and flooding, and pay attention to local weather reports.
“Residents and visitors to North Carolina should keep safety in mind as Tropical Storm Elsa passes through our state today,” said Cooper. “Everyone should stay alert to rapidly changing weather conditions and have a plan should they need to move to another location.”
The heaviest rains to sweep North Carolina are forecast for Central North Carolina, with 1 to 3 inches, and localized amounts of 5 inches are possible throughout Thursday.
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