The National Weather Service is stressing the threat of overnight tornadoes in Southeast North Carolina after the potential tropical cyclone being tracked Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico developed into a named tropical storm on Friday.
“It has become Tropical Storm Nestor,” said Jordan Baker, meteorologist with the Natonal Weather Service office in Wilmington.
As of 5 p.m. Friday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Hurricane Center placed Nestor about 200 miles southwest of Panama City Beach, Florida, and projected to move into the Southeast. Nestor was packing maximum sustained winds of 60 mph and moving northeast at 22 mph.
The Lumberton area can expect to feel the storm’s effects Saturday and into Sunday morning, Baker said.
“One thing we’re stressing right now in your area is a low threat of tornadoes,” he said.
The threat is greatest in the overnight hours, and Robeson County residents are urged to keep any and all devices over which they receive tornado threat warnings at a sound level that will wake them up, Baker said. These devices could televisions, computers, radios or telephones.
The storm is expected to dump 2 to 4 inches of rain on the Lumberton area and bring winds of 15 to 25 mph, he said.
Nestor was bearing down Friday on an area of the Florida Panhandle that was devastated one year ago by Hurricane Michael. But unlike Michael, a powerful storm that left thousands of people homeless and nearly wiped the Panhandle city of Mexico Beach off the map, Florida wasn’t bracing for a catastrophe.
“We’ve done very little preparation only because there’s nothing really to prepare for,” said Mexico City Beach Mayor Al Cathey. “We haven’t seen any alarm at all.”
As of Friday evening, the state had activated its emergency operations center, but only at its lowest level. In an area that’s recently gone weeks without rain, the storm was seen more as a welcome sight.
“You have to keep it in perspective: 75 percent of our city was destroyed,” Cathey said. “A little rain is welcome. Hopefully it won’t be something crazy, but if that’s all it is, I can deal with that. There’s nothing in this system that I’ve seen that tells me Mexico Beach needs to be alarmed.”
Nestor was forecast to hit the coast around Mexico Beach on Saturday morning without strengthening into a hurricane. Blasted by Michael in October 2018, the area is still trying to recover.
The National Hurricane Center said high winds and dangerous storm surge were likely along parts of the northern Gulf Coast, plus heavy rain that could help a parched region dealing with a drought.
Conditions were expected to deteriorate along the coast late Friday into early Saturday. Events including high school football games were canceled or postponed, but officials were trying to calm fears of a hard hit similar to Hurricane Michael last year.
A tropical storm warning was in effect from Navarre, Florida, to Yankeetown, Florida. A storm surge warning is in effect for Indian Pass, Florida, to Clearwater Beach, Florida.
Forecasters expect blustery winds and heavy rain in parts of Alabama, Georgia and northern Florida, reaching the Carolinas and Virginia by Sunday.
The Coast Guard said 20-foot seas were possible around Panama City, and dangerous rip currents were possible along beaches during what is still a busy tourism period.
High schools from Alabama to the eastern Florida Panhandle called off football games scheduled for Friday night, and officials in Panama City tried to assure residents that the storm wouldn’t be a repeat of Category 5 Hurricane Michael last year.
“We are optimistic this will be a slight wind and rain event,” Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford said.
The system could dump from 2 to 4 inches of rain from the central Gulf Coast to the eastern Carolinas, where many areas are dried out from weeks without rain, and as much as 6 inches in spots, forecasters said.
Seawater pushed inland by the storm could rise as much as 5 feet as storm surge in Florida’s Big Bend region, much of which is less-developed than the rest of the state’s coast.
