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    • Brevard is seeing wind and flood damage
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    Brevard is seeing wind and flood damage

    Vaseline Posted on

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    Brevard County will wake up Thursday to extreme winds, massive power outages and flooding along the Space Coast thanks to Hurricane Milton. A likely tornado touched down in Cocoa Beach on Wednesday.

    The storm was a Category 1 when it reached Brevard in the early hours of Thursday and headed toward the Atlantic Ocean through Cape Canaveral. It made landfall near Siesta Key as a powerful Category 3 hurricane at 8:30 PM Thursday.

    The night was a tough one for Brevard County, starting Wednesday evening when a possible tornado blew through Cocoa Beach, destroying several homes and buildings. The roof of a Wells Fargo was blown off, a Supercuts was destroyed and the mayor’s home was also damaged.

    National Weather Service researchers must conduct an investigation before officially labeling it a tornado.

    Reports of flooding came in from all over the province. A hotel in Grant flooded and had to be evacuated. From Satellite Beach to Rockledge, streets were flooded. Rainfall in northern Brevard was expected to be so heavy that a fourth shelter was opened.

    Where is Hurricane Milton

    At 5 a.m., Milton moved from the east coast of Florida near Cape Canaveral into the Atlantic Ocean, still as a hurricane, with sustained winds of 85 mph, according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center.

    The eye of the storm passed early Thursday morning somewhere between Titusville and Kennedy Space Center. Milton headed for shore about 4 a.m. Brevard was still hit by the tail end of the storm hours later.

    “We will continue to see tropical storm to hurricane gusts throughout the morning,” Brendan Schaper, a meteorologist at the National Weather Center in Melbourne, said early Thursday morning. “Eventually we will see a decrease in winds tonight.”

    Storm radar for Florida

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    As a resource, we are staffing a text messaging service to bring you the latest updates on Hurricane Milton, connect you with resources and answer questions. Nasty to registerenter your number below or text “Hi” to (239) 241-6343.

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    Brevard County officials opened a fourth shelter late Wednesday at the Port St. John Community Center, 6650 Corto Road, Cocoa.

    The shelter was activated from a standby list “out of an abundance of caution.” It is open to the general public, as well as pets. Nearly 200 people filled Brevard’s three other shelters on Wednesday.

    All four shelters in the province are located here:

    • South Mainland Community Center, 3700 Allen Ave., Micco, FL 32976
    • Walter Butler Community Center, 4201 N Cocoa Blvd, Cocoa, FL 32927
    • Wickham Park Community Center, 2815 Leisure Way, Melbourne, FL 32935
    • Port St. John Community Center, 6650 Corto Road, Cocoa

    The shelters are pet friendly. Space Coast Area Transit will provide transportation to the shelters for registered clients with special needs. Call 2-1-1 to request transportation to a special needs shelter.

    Residents going to shelters must bring their own supplies, including bedding, folding chairs or sleeping bags. It is also recommended to bring necessary medications, multiple changes of clothing, personal hygiene items, and entertainment items such as games, cards, books, or magazines.

    There were 85,430 power outages reported in Brevard shortly after 6 a.m. (24.1% of total accounts).

    –Jim Waymer

    A flash flood warning was issued for northwest Brevard County until 9 a.m. Thursday.

    Doppler radar and automated rain gauges indicated thunderstorms causing heavy rain in the warned area. Between 1 and 3 inches of rain fell, according to the National Weather Service. Additional rain amounts of 5 to 10 cm are possible in the warned area.

    Spitzer is a trending reporter. She can be reached at [email protected].

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