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A26 U.S. NEWS
Diahuebs 8 Juli 2021

Tropical Storm Elsa makes landfall, heads to Georgia

are open at both ends, like a move in,” Mayor Jane Darby
giant tube on its side, and its said.
cargo decks still contain hun-
dreds of bashed and mangled The forecast for the barrier
cars. island 30 miles (48 kilome-
ters) down the coast from
At the Hillbilly Fish Camp Charleston was similar to a
and R.V. Park in the south heavy summer thunderstorm
Georgia town of Waycross, – an inch or two (2.5 to 5
Margie Freitag hunkered centimeters) of rain, winds
down Wednesday after pull- gusting up to about 40 mph
ing boats out of the water and (64 kph) and maybe a little
picking up loose items ahead beach erosion with the worst
of the storm. Freitag said she of Elsa expected between low
had plenty of supplies after and high tides. Other South
stocking up for the coronavi- Carolina beaches expected
rus pandemic. similar conditions, coming
mostly overnight to be less of
“We already had flashlights a bother to visitors during an
and batteries and were totally extremely busy summer.
stocked up with food, water
and things like that,” she said. “Businesses are struggling
(AP) — A weakened Trop- without electricity, according Most salvage workers were “We’re right on the lake and with workers in short sup-
ical Storm Elsa dumped to the website poweroutages. sheltering indoors Wednes- we can see the rain hitting ply a lot more than they are
rain across Florida’s us. day, said Coast Guard Petty and wind coming across the going to be bothered by this
northern Gulf Coast ear- Officer 2nd Class Michael lake.” storm,” Darby said. “That’s
ly Wednesday, sparing In Steinhatchee, Florida, not Himes, a spokesperson for where the stress is now.”
the state from significant far from where Elsa came the multiagency command In Vidalia, Georgia, residents Elsa is already the third tropi-
damage as it churned to- ashore, there was some overseeing the demolition. were just east of where fore- cal system to hit South Caro-
ward Georgia with threats flooding, but no worse than The towering crane being casters expect Elsa to track. lina. In June, Tropical Storm
of flooding downpours the town typically sees from used to cut the ship apart Because conditions are of- Claudette moved across the
and possibly tornadoes. heavy rain, said Melissa Rop- into giant chunks remained ten more intense to the east northern part of the state af-
er, whose family owns Off in place straddling the wreck, of a storm’s center, officials ter making landfall in Louisi-
Elsa wobbled through the The Clock Fisheries and Ma- stabilized by mooring lines feared that heavy winds and ana and Tropical Storm Dan-
Gulf of Mexico, briefly rina along the Steinhatchee attached to anchors and pil- rains could bring down trees ny hit land near Hilton Head
reaching hurricane strength, River. ings. The crane was also and power lines there. Island. Both storms caused
but moved ashore as a tropi- anchored to the shipwreck only minor damage.
cal storm late Wednesday “It’s definitely a lot better itself, which weighs about “That’s what concerns me,”
morning. The U.S. National than expected considering 13,200 tons (12,000 metric Mayor Doug Roper III said. Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast
Hurricane Center said the it was supposed to be a hur- tons), Himes said. “We’re praying for the best, Guard said 13 people were
storm made landfall in lightly ricane that hit,” Roper said. but prepared for the worst.” rescued from a boat that had
populated Taylor County, “We’re pretty fortunate.” “As far as the wreck shift- left Cuba with 22 people
Florida, with maximum sus- ing, that’s highly unlikely,” Out on Edisto Beach, South aboard late Monday. Nine
tained winds of 65 mph (105 Elsa’s center was forecast to Himes said. Carolina, where a tropical people remained missing.
kph). cross into southeast Georgia storm warning was in effect,
on Wednesday afternoon, Himes said crews would Wednesday started muggy Elsa is the earliest fifth-
Gov. Ron DeSantis told a bringing a risk of flooding be watching to see if Elsa’s and overcast. named storm on record, said
news conference that no from an anticipated 2 to 4 winds scatter any debris from Brian McNoldy, a hurricane
major structural damage or inches (5 to 10 centimeters) the ship into the surrounding “The kind of day you can just researcher at the University
storm deaths had been re- of rain. The storm was fore- water. The vessel’s remains feel the weather wanting to of Miami.
ported. cast to move into South Car-
olina early Thursday, and by
“Clearly, this could have Friday its effects could be felt
been worse,” the Republi- as far north as New England.
can governor said, though he
cautioned that many storm- The storm complicated the
related deaths happen after search for potential survivors
the system passes. “Be very and victims in the collapse of
careful when you’re working a Miami-area condominium
to clear debris.” on June 24. Regardless, crews
continued the search in the
Even after Elsa struck land, rubble of Champlain Towers
tropical storm warnings re- South in Surfside, Florida,
mained Wednesday afternoon on the state’s southeast coast.
along Florida’s Big Bend as
well as for the entire Georgia The storm also temporarily
and South Carolina coasts. halted demolition Wednes-
Tornado watches were also day on the remainder of an
in effect in parts of northern overturned cargo ship off the
Florida and southeast Geor- coast of Georgia. The South
gia until 8 p.m. Wednesday. Korean freighter Golden Ray
capsized in September 2019
Scattered power outages were off St. Simons Island, about
being reported along Elsa’s 70 miles (110 kilometers)
path Wednesday afternoon, south of Savannah. Crews
with about 30,000 homes and have removed more than half
businesses on either side of the ship since November.
the Georgia-Florida state line