Tropical Storm Eta is poised to make its fourth landfall in the state of Florida even as the region still hasn't recovered from previous damages. It will make landfall on the coast of Florida by 01:55.
Fourth devastating landfall
The tropical storm named Eta is on its way to Florida's coast and is about to make the fourth landfall so far. It is expected to destroy piers, damaged bridges, and tear away the area's boats from moorings.
Since Wednesday, the region of Western Florida has been struck by winds with tropical-storm-force along with heavy rainfall.
According to local officials in Sarasota, Madeira Beach, and St. Petersburg, they already had respondents attending to the various reports of flooding in the streets and of roofs being torn apart.
According to the website PowerOutage.US, there are already almost 21,000 power customers who currently have no power.
From hurricane to a tropical storm
The NHC or National Hurricane Center said that Eta briefly reached hurricane status last Wednesday morning, after which it quickly turned back to tropical storm status, with winds having speeds of 60 miles per hour.
Parts of the west coast of the state had their hurricane watch status lifted. However, the tropical storm warnings are still up for the areas from Englewood up to Suwannee River in Florida, as well as for the Volusia/Flagler Counties Florida line.
According to the NHC, tropical storm Eta is now moving at approximately 10 miles per hour, with its location being 65 miles north-to-northwest from St. Petersburg.
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Additional water
Michael Guy, the meteorologist of CNN, reported that apart from receiving winds with tropical-storm-force levels as well as gusts reaching hurricane-force levels, most of the regions of central and western Florida will also have from one to three inches of rain until Thursday. This will add to the rainfall of over six inches already received by some areas during the past 24 hours.
The winds that will push onshore will also cause a storm surge that can reach from two to five feet along with most parts of the state's western coast. This includes the highly vulnerable area of Tampa Bay. So far, the water level is already two to three feet above the normal levels, and it will continue to increase within the coming hours.
According to Guy, the area of Cedar Key, north from where the landfall is thought to occur, already reportedly has minor flooding even before landfall has been made.
The first landfall
As Eta is geared for its fourth landfall, it will be remembered that its first landfall occurred in Central America during the past week with a hurricane Category 4 status. It then made landfall in Cuba, and then in the Lower area Matecumbe Key last Sunday night.
According to the NHC, this fourth landfall is the last expected onslaught of tropical storm Eta. It is likely to dissipate in the western region of the Atlantic Ocean over this weekend.
So far, there have been 29 named storms within this hurricane season, which is record-breaking, and Tropical Storm Eta ravaging Florida may not be the last.
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