Tropical Storm Nicole dropped heavyrains that cut roads, washed away bridges and homes and may havekilled at least one child as it moved through Jamaica, Cuba andthe Cayman Islands before dissipating over the Straits ofFlorida today.
One child was reported swept away when a house succumbed toflood waters, according to Jamaica’s Office of DisasterPreparedness and Emergency Management’s website. Cuba’smeteorological institute reported “intense and heavy rains”were falling in its central provinces and warned of flooding inlow-lying areas from east of Havana to Guantanamo.
Nicole has since become untrackable, according to aNational Hurricane Center advisory at 5 p.m. East Coast time.
The disappearance of Nicole doesn’t mean that New York andthe rest of the U.S. East Coast will be spared heavy rainsstarting overnight, said Carl Erickson, senior meteorologist atcommercial forecaster AccuWeather inc. in State College,Pennsylvania.
“The weather forecast hasn’t changed much, you just can’tattach a name to it,” Erickson said. “Regardless whetherNicole existed or not, the situation was going to remain thesame, a tremendous amount of tropical moisture is coming up theEast Coast.”
Flood watches are now posted from South Carolina to NewHampshire in advance of the storm, according to the NationalWeather Service.
As much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain may fall inNew York’s five boroughs said Joe Pollina, a weather servicemeteorologist in Upton, New York. Some areas may receive more.
Pollina said the heaviest rain will arrive in two waves,the first will be tomorrow from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m., followed by asecond late tomorrow night.
“Torrential rains could be falling from the Carolinas allthe way up to New York City,” said Meredith Croke, ameteorologist for AirDat LLC in North Carolina, which installsweather-gathering sensors on commercial aircraft.
Washington and Baltimore were forecast to receive as muchas 4 inches of rain, as were New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvaniaincluding Philadelphia, and Delaware, according to the weatherservice. Some areas in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware mayget 7 inches, the weather service said.
In addition, the weather service has issued a high-windwatch for eastern Long Island, parts of Connecticut, RhodeIsland and Massachusetts, as well as eastern Maine startingtomorrow. Wind gusts as intense as 60 miles (96 kilometers) perhour may occur through the day after tomorrow.
The wet weather should be gone by this weekend, Ericksonsaid.
Before it dissipated, Nicole was the 14th storm with windsof at least 39 miles per hour of the 2010 Atlantic hurricaneseason, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. the average seasonproduces 11 storms, according to the hurricane center.
The center is also tracking two tropical waves over thecentral Atlantic that it says have a 10 percent chance each ofbecoming tropical cyclones within two days. A tropical cycloneis a rotating storm ranging from a depression to a hurricane.
To contact the reporter on this story:Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net
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