Tropical Storm Eta swept across northern Florida on Thursday from the Gulf Coast to the Atlantic, finally moving away from the state after dumping torrents of rain and leaving at least one person dead.
Eta made its second Florida landfall — and fourth overall — on Thursday morning, just to the south of Cedar Key, Florida, roughly a 130-mile drive northwest of Tampa, at 4 a.m. with winds of 50 mph.
By Thursday afternoon, Eta’s center was moving offshore over the Atlantic, near the Florida-Georgia state line, with sustained winds of 40 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.
About 2 to 6 inches of rain fell over central and northern Florida on Wednesday and into Thursday morning. Officials in areas including St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Madeira Beach have responded to reports of roofs torn off and flooded streets over the past couple of days.
More than 21,000 customers in Florida were without power Thursday afternoon, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.
While it was over the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, Eta whipped western Florida with tropical storm-force winds and heavy rain.
In Bradenton Beach just northwest of Sarasota, a man is dead after being electrocuted in standing water inside his home Wednesday evening, emergency management officials said.
Eta’s heavy rain had caused flooding in the area, Manatee County emergency medical services chief James Crutchfield said.
Localized flash and urban flooding is possible across Florida on Thursday, and minor river flooding is expected across parts of western Florida into the weekend, the NHC said.
Eta’s center is expected to move parallel to the coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas Thursday and Friday before heading well east of the mid-Atlantic coast by late Friday according to the NHC.
Flooding in North Carolina caused by Eta and another storm system has led to the deaths of four people, authorities said.
Crews recovered three bodies at Hiddenite Family Campground in Alexander County, about 50 miles northwest of Charlotte. Rescuers continue to search for one adult and one child.
Another person died in a car accident due to a bridge outage in the Vashti community, according to county officials.
At least 31 people were evacuated from floodwaters.
Up to 10 inches of rain has fallen recently, county officials said. The rain is associated with a cold front but Eta made the rain even heavier.
Eta made landfall three times before. It first crossed into Central America last week as a Category 4 hurricane, leaving scores of people dead or missing.
Then it made landfall in Cuba on Sunday and in Florida’s Lower Matecumbe Key later that day.
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season has been especially active. It has set the record for most named storms in a single season with 29 so far.
CNN’s Jason Hanna, Rebekah Riess and Taylor Ward contributed to this report.
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