Eta regained hurricane strength Wednesday morning as Florida braced for a second hit from the storm along the Gulf of Mexico coast near the heavily-populated Tampa Bay region.

The storm’s maximum sustained winds increased to around 75 mph off Florida’s southwest coast as it moved northward.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami issued a hurricane watch for a 120-mile stretch that includes Tampa and St. Petersburg. The storm has been in the Gulf of Mexico since crossing over South Florida on Sunday.

The latest hurricane watch extends from Anna Maria Island, which is south of St. Petersburg, to Yankeetown.

The latest forecast prompted school officials in Pinellas and Pasco counties, which includes St. Petersburg, to send students home early Wednesday. Both counties announced schools would remain closed Thursday.

In Pasco County, officials set up four do-it-yourself locations for people to fill sandbags. In Tampa, the Busch Gardens theme park announced it is closed Wednesday and several Veterans Day events in the area were canceled.

A coronavirus testing site at Tropicana Field was also closed Wednesday.

Eta was about 130 miles west-southwest of Fort Myers early Wednesday and moving at 15 mph.

The hurricane center said “life-threatening storm surge” is possible early Thursday, and forecasters advised residents to heed warnings from local officials. Tropical storm-force winds are expected in the area by late Wednesday.

Forecasts call for more rain from the storm system over parts of already drenched South Florida.

“Never seen this, never, not this deep,” said Anthony Lyas, who has lived in his now-waterlogged Fort Lauderdale neighborhood since 1996. He described hearing water and debris slamming against his shuttered home overnight as the storm crossed Florida.

The storm first hit Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane and killed nearly 70 people from Mexico to Panama, before moving into the Gulf of Mexico early Monday near where the Everglades meet the sea, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.

“It was far worse than we could’ve ever imagined, and we were prepared,” said Arbie Walker, a 27-year-old student whose Fort Lauderdale apartment was filled with 5 or 6 inches of water.

There was nowhere for the water to go across much of South Florida, which had already experienced nearly 14 inches of rain in October.

As much as 16 inches of rain damaged one of the state’s largest coronavirus testing sites, at Miami-Dade County’s Hard Rock Stadium, officials said. Throughout the pandemic, it has been among the busiest places to get a coronavirus diagnosis. The site was expected to be closed until Wednesday or Thursday.

Eta hit land late Sunday as it blew over Lower Matecumbe, in the middle of the chain of small islands that form the Keys, but the heavily populated areas of Miami-Dade and Broward Counties bore the brunt of the fury.

It was the 28th named storm of a busy Atlantic hurricane season, tying the 2005 record for named storms. And late Monday, it was followed by the 29th storm — Theta.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Theta broke the record of 28 named storms in 2005. Theta was centered Wednesday morning about 740 miles southwest of the Azores, bearing top sustained winds of 65 mph as that system moved east-northeast at 8 mph.

Related Stories
‹
Hurricane Debby Makes Landfall in Florida as Category 1 Storm and Threatens Catastrophic Flooding
Hurricane Debby reached the coast of Florida on Monday, bringing the potential for catastrophic flooding and life-threatening storm surge.
How the Hot Water That Fueled Hurricane Beryl Foretells a Scary Storm Season
Written by SETH BORENSTEIN Hurricane Beryl’s explosive growth into an unprecedented early whopper of a storm shows the literal hot water the Atlantic and Caribbean are in right now and the kind of season ahead, experts said. Beryl smashed multiple records even before its major-hurricane-level winds approached land. The powerful storm is acting more like monsters that […]
Hurricane Idalia Unleashes Fury on Florida After Making Landfall as a Dangerous Category 3 Storm
Written by DANIEL KOZIN Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Florida’s west coast as a catastrophic Category 3 storm on Wednesday and unleashed life-threatening storm surges and rainfall across an area that has never before received such pummeling. More than 230,000 customers were without electricity as trees snapped by strong winds brought down power lines and […]
Many Trapped in Florida as Ian Heads Toward South Carolina
Written by ADRIANA GOMEZ-LICON Rescue crews waded through flooded streets and used boats Thursday in a scramble to save people trapped after Hurricane Ian destroyed a cross-section of Florida and brought torrential rains that continued to fall. The destruction began to come into focus a day after Ian made landfall in Florida as one of the strongest […]
Fiona Slams Dominican Republic After Pounding Puerto Rico
Written by DÁNICA COTO Hurricane Fiona roared over the Dominican Republic on Monday after knocking out power across all of Puerto Rico, causing damage the governor said was “catastrophic.” No deaths had been reported, but authorities in the U.S. territory said it was too early to know the full scope of damage from an expansive […]
After Ida Soaks Northeast US, Cleanup and Mourning Continues
The cleanup — and mourning — continued Friday as the Northeast U.S. recovered from record-breaking rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Ida. At least 48 people in five states died as storm water cascaded into people’s homes and engulfed automobiles, overwhelming urban drainage systems never meant to handle so much rain in such a short […]
Death Toll Rises After Ida’s Remnants Hit Northeast
Written by DAVID PORTER and MARK SCOLFORO The remnants of Hurricane Ida inundated large swaths of the northeastern U.S. with historic and unanticipated fury Wednesday night, killing at least 14 people in flooding in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania as basement apartments suddenly filled with water, rivers and creeks swelled to record levels and […]
Hurricane Ida Traps Louisianans, Leaves the Grid a Shambles
Written by REBECCA SANTANA, KEVIN McGILL and JANET McCONNAUGHEY Rescue workers set out in hundreds of boats and helicopters to reach people trapped by floodwaters and utility crews mobilized Monday after a furious Hurricane Ida swamped the Louisiana coast and shattered a large swath of the state’s electrical grid in the sweltering, late-summer heat. One […]
Tropical Storm Eta Dumps Blustery Rain on Florida West Coast
Tropical Storm Eta dumped torrents of blustery rain on Florida’s west coast as it moved over Florida after making landfall north of the heavily populated Tampa Bay area Thursday morning. The storm slogged ashore near Cedar Key, Florida, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph. The National Hurricane Center in Miami predicted Eta would then […]
Eta Regains Hurricane Strength as Florida Prepares for Hit
Eta regained hurricane strength Wednesday morning as Florida braced for a second hit from the storm along the Gulf of Mexico coast near the heavily-populated Tampa Bay region. The storm’s maximum sustained winds increased to around 75 mph off Florida’s southwest coast as it moved northward. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami issued […]
›