Tropical Storm Claudette Hits Florida

(CBS/AP)  Updated 7:47 a.m. ET

Tropical Storm Claudette made landfall on the Florida coast near Fort Walton Beach early Monday, making it the first to hit the U.S. mainland this year.

Later it weakened to a tropical depression as it traveled over the Florida panhandle into Alabama.

Lurking more ominously is Hurricane Bill, which was upgraded Monday from a tropical storm in the open Atlantic.

Claudette's maximum sustained winds are near 50 mph, but it's expected to weaken as it moves over land.

Forecasters say rainfall of up to 6 inches is expected, with isolated areas getting up to 10 inches.

But Claudette is not expected to cause significant flooding or wind damage.

Some power outages and flooding occurred in areas, but no major damage was reported, CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports, adding that the peak of hurricane season is Sept. 10, and the season concludes Nov. 30.

Condominiums on Pensacola Beach warned residents on Sunday to bring balcony furniture indoors as winds from Claudette were anticipated to strengthen. A trickle of cars and SUVs with surfboards on top headed east along the coast as surfers were catching waves whipped up by Claudette.

On Pensacola Beach, the National Park Service closed low-lying roads that connect the restaurants and hotels to the undeveloped National Seashore and historic Fort Pickens Fort. The Park Service said campers would be ordered to leave the area because of the likelihood of the road flooding.

"We may see some heavy rains as a result, but we don't expect any high winds or coastal flooding," said John Dosh, manager of Emergency Management. "This event is a good example of how quickly a tropical storm can develop. We won't always have a lot of warning. This is why citizens need to be prepared throughout hurricane season."

In Panama City, the Bay County Emergency Operations Center opened a shelter at a local high school for residents of low-lying areas and people with special needs.

Alexander Hanrahan, a tourist from London, watched Claudette roll into Pensacola. He said his family feared the storm after watching the television in their beach-front condominium.

"We were actually deliberating whether to get out on the road, but when we got out it was nothing. My mom was nervous because she's not used to driving here anyway," Hanrahan said.

Claudette was expected to move into southern Alabama later Monday.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Bill was intensified far from land in the open Atlantic on Sunday - it could become a hurricane early Monday. It had sustained winds of 70 mph. Category 1 hurricanes have winds between 74 mph and 95 mph.

Winds from what used to be Tropical Storm Ana diminished to 35 mph and it was expected to make landfall as a depression at the Leeward Islands early Monday. Watches were posted for Puerto Rico, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Antigua, St. Maarten and several other islands in the area. Ana was forecast to bring up to 4 inches of rain.

In the Pacific, Hurricane Guillermo continued to weaken with winds dropping to 75 mph. Guillermo was moving on a track that would take it well away from the Hawaiian Islands, forecasters said.

Despite the storms, a warmer weather pattern called El Nino over the Pacific Ocean is generally expected to damper the formation of tropical storms in the Caribbean and Atlantic this year, said Brian Daly, a meteorologist with the national weather service in Mobile, Alabama.

"It's pretty frequent that an El Nino year would be somewhat delayed with fewer storms," Daly said.

CBS News correspondent Hari Sreenivasan reports that forecasters recently scaled back their predictions for this year, saying they expect only 10 named storms instead of 11, and just four hurricanes instead of five.

"Typically, in May, June and July, it's fairly inactive, but right now in the middle of August is when see things really begin to ramp up, approaching a peak right around September 10," said Jeff Berardelli, a meteorologist with CBS station WFOR-TV in Miami.

[zonkzilla]

Maybe we can call summer storms that hit non coastal areas " death storms" or something dramatic? "Tropical storm" sounds so scary for a summer storm, we need something like that too.

[zonkzilla]

Now this hurts my feelings.
Where I live we have had 5 storms worse than this, this summer, and we are not even near the coast. In fact we have them every year in the summer but we call them "thunderstorms". The last storm we had carried winds up to 90 Mph, marble sized hail, trees were blown over, and we had some power outages and that was two weeks ago but I saw nothing about it on the national news.
What? We don't count? Because we don't live on the coast we are nothing and unimportant?
It's discrimination I tell you.
I am deeply hurt, no really, I could cry.
I guess if the Wall Street controlled media cannot use a news story to boost oil prices then it is not important to them.

[docpeter1953]

RE: by zonkzilla August 17, 2009 9:15 AM EDT

The last storm we had carried winds up to 90 Mph, marble sized hail, trees were blown over, and we had some power outages and that was two weeks ago but I saw nothing about it on the national news.

What?

We don't count? NO you don't count.

Because we don't live on the coast we are nothing and unimportant? No, you are not important.

It's discrimination I tell you. No, its naturally selected against you, no discrimination here, we hate everyone equally, some we hate more equally than others, but that is a person/personality thing.

I am deeply hurt, no really, I could cry. Good, then the desired result was almost (65%) attained.

[zonkzilla]

Now watch gas prices go up because of this rain storm.
No kidding, just watch.
Now we will see if that new law about gas price manipulation is real or just another phoney law to make it look like someone is trying to do something about the American people being ripped off by futures traders and the oil companies.

[Hosheen]

zonkzilla, Sadly, you are probably right. I've said for years that, if Americans knew the entire truth about gas prices, there would be oil company executives hanging from streetlamps. There would likely be a lot of politicians hanging next to them, too.

[docpeter1953]

While you MAY be right, there is no drilling off the shore of Florida.

There are no oil refineries in Florida.
Only three in alabama.
Two in Georgia
Four in Mississippi
(These are the most likely effected states.)

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oil_refineries

Or you can find out more by going here: http://www.ogj.com/index.html

[pensacola8-2009]

Claudette gave very little precipitation and wind to Pensacola. Low clouds were observed at sunrise moving about 40-45 mph at about 2,000 feet about the ground to the east-north-east.

The recent thundershowers we have seen for 10 of the last 12 days gave far more wind and precipitation.

No power outages were observed.

[AOCGUY]

30 miles to the east the story is a little different. Wind gusts coming off the gulf in the vicinity of Navarre Beach and eastward were very stiff along with heavy rain. Isolated power outages in Bluewater bay. Very heavy rain at this time in Ft Walton Beach along with strong winds.