The outer bands of Tropical Storm Eta hammered southern Florida on Monday morning, leaving a semi truck hanging off the side of a highway; and experts are predicting that the storm is far from over.
The incident happened during rain and wind brought about by Tropical Storm Eta on November 9th at around 4:55 a.m. in Miami, Florida. And experts say that the storm’s impact is far from over.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the semi truck was traveling west along State Road 826, known as the Palmetto Expressway, as the storm’s outer bands struck the state, causing wind gusts up to 35-45 mph.
The truck driver lost control just before NW 47th Avenue, skidded off the wet road and onto the right shoulder. The rig then slid partially down an embankment, leaving the front half of the truck hanging off of the highway.
It is not clear whether the driver was injured in the incident.
As of 10 a.m. EST, the center of Tropical Storm Eta was still 100 miles west of Key West with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph. The storm is moving southwest at 14 mph, and has already left more than 40,000 people without power in the Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach areas just from the strength of the outer bands of the storm, alone.
TROPICAL STORM ETA
— Jessica Vallejo (@Jvallejotv) November 9, 2020
Intersection of Brickell Avenue and 13 th street , looks like a lake. Water level is knee feet deep. Please drive with caution or avoid this area ! #TropicalStormEta #brickell pic.twitter.com/7wkT8xLk4O
For Monday, a storm surge of up to 3 feet is expected from Bonita Beach in southwest Florida to Card Sound Bridge in Key Largo, and another 1-2 feet from there up to Golden Beach in Miami-Dade. Additionally, two to four inches of rain is predicted to continue all day Monday throughout the central and southern portions of Florida, with some areas expecting as much as 18 inches of rain.
The storm has been morphing from Tropical Depression, to Storm, to potential hurricane since last week, and has since struck Central America and Cuba. Experts say that they expect Eta to make one more pivot over Florida.
The 2020 Atlantic #hurricane season has now generated 103 named storm days. 2020 is now tied with 1950 for the 4th-most Atlantic named storm days since 1900. The only years that have produced more Atlantic named storm days since 1900 are: 1933, 1995 and 2005. #Eta pic.twitter.com/oSDiI5Lj1V
— Philip Klotzbach (@philklotzbach) November 8, 2020
“Little overall motion is forecast on Tuesday and a slow northward motion is expected on Wednesday,” Stewart said. “On the forecast track, the center of Eta will continue to move away from the Florida Keys and south Florida today, and will remain over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico tonight through Wednesday.
Eta is expected to make landfall again closer to Saturday, this time north of Tampa, Florida.
“We’re going to be dealing with this all week,” said National Hurricane Center director Ken Graham.
“Tracking the windfield on this, you can kind of see winds really ease and kind of collect over the eastern Gulf of Mexico,” King said. “From that point we’ve got to distinctly see where the circulation goes and what they may ultimately mean for us in Florida.”
Although considerable rainfall and wind gusts are still expected throughout the southern portion of the state, the Tropical Storm Warning had been lifted for the entirety of the Florida peninsula as of 10 a.m. on Monday.