Tropical Storm Elsa brought gusty winds and very heavy rain to coastal Georgia, causing extensive damage in some areas. At a campground on King’s Bay Naval Base in Camden County, a suspected tornado flipped over RVs and destroyed trailers, sending some of them into the lake, one eyewitness says. Several people were injured.
Elsa has been blamed for at least one death in the United States. A Florida man was killed Wednesday when heavy rain and wind caused a tree to fall on two cars, officials said. At least three people were killed in the Caribbean before the storm hit Florida, according to the Associated Press.
The storm moved into Georgia Wednesday evening after making landfall earlier in the day in coastal Taylor County, Florida.
@ActionNewsJax @NWSJacksonville Kingsbay base got hit hard by the tornado. pic.twitter.com/tU7upBATbH
— Sergio Rodriguez (@LyftGyft) July 7, 2021
Tropical Storm Watches and Warnings remain in effect along the eastern seaboard. A WeatherFlow station on Jekyll Island reported a sustained wind of 44 mph with a gust to 58 mph. The storm is expected to continue slowly weakening as it moves over land.
On its forecast track, Elsa will move over the Carolinas Thursday and move near or over the mid-Atlantic coast on Friday.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed an emergency order Tuesday, freeing up state and local resources to respond quickly in the event of a weather emergency. He suspended truck safety regulations to ensure gas and building materials may be transported without interruption and prohibited price gouging on materials needed for response and recovery efforts.
92 Georgia counties remain under a state of emergency.
Georgia counties under a state of emergency include Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Baker, Baldwin, Ben Hill, Berrien, Bibb, Bleckley, Brantley, Brooks, Bryan, Bulloch, Burke, Calhoun, Camden, Candler, Charlton, Chatham, Chattahoochee, Clay, Clinch, Coffee, Colquitt, Columbia, Cook, Crawford, Crisp, Decatur, Dodge, Dooly, Dougherty, Early, Echols, Effingham, Emanuel, Evans, Glascock, Glynn, Grady, Hancock, Houston, Irwin, Jeff Davis, Jefferson, Jenkins, Johnson, Jones, Lanier, Laurens, Lee, Liberty, Long, Lowndes, Macon, Marion, McDuffie, McIntosh, Miller, Mitchell, Montgomery, Muscogee, Peach, Pierce, Pulaski, Quitman, Randolph, Richmond, Schley, Screven, Seminole, Stewart, Sumter Tattnall, Taylor, Telfair, Terrell, Thomas, Tift, Toombs, Treutlen, Turner, Twiggs, Ware, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Webster, Wheeler, Wilcox, Wilkinson, and Worth.
The state of emergency is set to expire on Wednesday, July 14.
Updated July 8@4am
