#15,306
Tropical storm Cristobal is expected to make landfall along the northern Gulf Coast this evening - and while not a well-defined, or particularly powerful storm - Cristobal is expected to bring both significant storm surge to the coastline and enough rain to produce inland flooding as well.
The strongest effects are found on the east side of the storm, and for the past 24 hours much of the Peninsula of Florida has seen heavy rain. The following NHC chart shows the storm surge potential, with the highest (3-5 ft) just to the right of the expected landfall.
Inland flooding, including hundreds of miles north of landfall, is expected (see below) as the remnants of Cristobal race north.
It now appears that New Orleans will see heavy amounts of rain, and NWS New Orleans has issued the following warning:
The Key Messages from the National Hurricane Center this morning are:
If you are on Twitter, you should also follow @FEMA, @NHC_Atlantic, @NHC_Pacific and @ReadyGov and of course take direction from your local Emergency Management Office.Although it doesn't happen often, sometimes the greatest impact from a tropical storm can happen hundreds of miles from landfall. In 1972 a similarly weak and diffuse storm (Hurricane Agnes) went ashore in the panhandle of Florida, and a week later dumped a massive amount of rain across Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York (see graphic below).
Of the 122 deaths associated with this storm, only 9 occurred in Florida where Agnes made landfall. The rest - 113 deaths - were due to inland freshwater flooding, with New York and Pennsylvania suffering the highest loses.
Odds are, no one sitting at home in New York state or Pennsylvania on the night of June 19th, 1972 gave much thought to a marginal hurricane that was making landfall more than a thousand miles to their south.A reminder that preparedness is for everyone, not just those of us who live in high risk areas.
