Mortgage Broker in Indian Harbour Beach, SC

Caroline Dolehide won the biggest title of her young career on Sunday at the 13th annual Space Coast Pro Tennis Classic, a $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit event, in the final defeating Romania’s Irina Maria Bara 6-4, 7-5 at the Kiwi Tennis Club in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla.

The 19-year-old Dolehide overpowered Bara while executing deft drop shots to keep her scrambling opponent off-guard, and dealing with some challenging weather conditions. Last year Dolehide lost in the final of the $60,000 event in Charlottesville to American countrywoman Madison Brengle.

Bara attempted to fend off exhaustion after winning three matches on Saturday, including the doubles title with Spanish partner Silvia Soler-Espinosa. In the final they topped Americans Jessica Pegula/Maria Sanchez 6-4, 6-2.

The No. 7-seeded Dolehide upset No. 3 seed Jana Cepelova in the third round and received a walkover against the top-seeded Brengle (back injury) in the semifinals. The unseeded Bara upended No. 2 seed Kristie Ahn in the second round 7-6(10), 7-6(4), No. 6 seed Ons Jabeur in the quarterfinals, and No. 4 Taylor Townsend 6-7(5), 7-5, 7-5 in the semifinals.

Dolehide trailed 2-4 in the first set of the championship match before stringing together four straight games to take the set. Swirling winds picking up late in the match frustrated both players, and Dolehide at one point received a code violation for smashing a racquet. Bara led 5-3 in the second set before she became visibly fatigued and lost the next four games leading to a handshake at the net.

The Chicago native is now 4-2 in career USTA Pro Circuit finals, winning her first of 2018. Last year she was 2-1 in finals, claiming championships at Surprise, Ariz., and Winnipeg, Canada, and finishing runner-up at Charlottesville. The 23-year-old Bara fell to 9-8 in career ITF/USTA Pro Circuit finals, appearing in her first final of the year. In 2017 she was 1-2 in finals, winning at Bastad, Sweden, and finishing runner-up at Pula, Italy, and Valencia, Spain.

Dolehide now leads the 2018 USTA Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge, which offers a French Open main draw wild card to the American who records the two best results at four USTA Pro Circuit tournaments: Indian Harbour Beach, Dothan, Ala. (week of April 16), Charlottesville, Va. (week of April 23), and Charleston, S.C. (week of April 30).

For more info on the USTA Pro Circuit go to www.usta.com/en/home/pro/pro-tennis-events/ProCircuit.html.

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – The National Weather Service was on the ground in South Patrick Shores Thursday to verify that a tornado touched down in the South Patrick Park neighborhood.

The EF-1 tornado — packing peak wind speeds of 90-100 mph — touched down near the intersection of Lighthouse Landing St. and South Patrick Drive around 5:20 p.m. Wednesday and exited out over the Atlantic near A1A and Ocean Boulevard. NWS meteorologists said the tornado was on the ground for a mile and was 300 yards wide.

The NWS had issued a tornado warning for the South Patrick Shores area just after 5 p.m.

According to Brevard County Emergency Management, around 40-50 homes were impacted by the tornado. Two roofs sustained major damage while 12 had minor damage, as many as 12 power poles were damaged and around 126 FPL customers were left without power.

Possible tornado touchdown in Brevard County

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“That’s another signal that this thing packed a big punch in just a short amount of time,” said county communications director Don Walker.

Video from the area shows fences and sheds torn apart, twisted trees, snapped branches, impacted autobodies and belongings strewn all over. No injuries were reported.

The county provided the following list of the most heavily-impacted streets, as well as a map outlining the area with the most damage.

Most heavily-impacted streets:

On SE 4th Street, Jon Manzi said the walls of his living room collapsed.

Manzi was remodeling his home so he said he wasn’t here, but had he been, he feared he might not be alive.

“I can’t imagine what would have happened if we were still living here so we are blessed in that respect,” the homeowner said. “I’m thankful myself, my wife, my daughter and my pets are safe today.”

Brevard County Fire Rescue, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, the city of Satellite Beach and FPL received thanks from BCEM in their response efforts, credited as instrumental in sizing up the situation, determining there were no injuries, checking on residents and securing the area, according to a news release.

Neighbors told News 6 that there was nowhere near enough time to prepare for the tornado, as opposed to something like a hurricane. As one man said, it arrived in a matter of seconds. A woman we spoke with said that it was gone just as quickly.

National Weather Service confirms EF-1 tornado touched down in Brevard County

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A scrapper collecting metal said the tornado was worse on the neighborhood than recent hurricanes.

“The hurricane didn’t do as much damage as this tornado did,” Martin Carrizales said.

BCEM has since requested that residents of impacted communities send in photos and descriptions of property damage left behind by the tornado using an online damage assessment form. The county stressed the form was not an application for assistance and served only as information used to help along emergency management decisions.

Hurricane Ian made landfall near Georgetown, South Carolina, about 55 miles northeast of Charleston, at 2:05 p.m. EDT Friday, September 30. At landfall, Ian was a category 1 storm with 85 mph winds and a central pressure of 977 mb. Ian’s largest impacts from this second U.S. landfall will likely be from storm surge flooding of up to 5 – 7 feet, and inland flooding from rains of 4 – 8 inches. However, the damage from this second U.S. landfall will very likely be more than a factor of 20 less than what occurred from its landfall in southwestern Florida. Hundreds of people were rescued on Thursday from the hardest-hit areas in southwestern Florida, and severe flooding from record-setting rains affected parts of central and northeast Florida.

Staggering insured damages

Even with Ian’s course of destruction still incomplete, it is virtually certain that the storm will rank as one of the most damaging in U.S. history. CoreLogic estimated that insured damage from Ian in Florida alone would range between $28 to $47 billion; Fitch Ratings estimated insured losses of $25 to $40 billion. Many billions more will be incurred by residents who lack adequate insurance. Florida has a strong building code for hurricane wind damage, but much of the damage from Ian came from storm surge and inland flooding, and home insurance does not typically cover these water-related threats. Only a small fraction of residents in southwest Florida outside the 100-year flood plain have federal flood insurance. Total damage typically ends up a factor of two higher than insured damage, so the total price tag for Ian’s rampage might be in the $50 – 100 billion range, which would make it one of the top-ten most expensive weather disasters in U.S. history (Figure 1).

Early Friday afternoon, torrential rains in excess of an inch per hour were falling along the coast of South Carolina, which was receiving the brunt of a primitive eyewall that Ian had built just before landfall. No rivers in South Carolina or North Carolina were at flood stage on Friday afternoon, but five rivers in those two states are predicted to reach at least minor flood stage this weekend. In Florida, however, 14 river gauges were at major flood stage on Friday afternoon from Ian’s rains, including a number at their highest levels on record.

Wind gusts of 40 to 70 mph were common along the coast of South Carolina late Friday morning into early Friday afternoon. A WeatherFlow station in Charleston Harbor recorded a wind gust of 92 mph at 12:44 p.m. EDT Friday, and a WeatherFlow station at Morris Island Lighthouse reported sustained winds of 75 mph with a gust to 82 mph shortly before 2 p.m. EDT.

Damaging storm surge predicted in parts of South Carolina and North Carolina

The portions of the Carolina coast to the right of where Ian’s center makes landfall are predicted to receive a damaging storm surge, with up to 5 to 7 feet of surge predicted along the northeastern coast of South Carolina. The timing of the surge with respect to the tide will be important: The tidal range is more than five feet along much of the coast, and some of the highest tides of the month – the king tides – are occurring this week. High tide at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, was at 11:30 am EDT Friday, and the highest water levels (storm tide) associated with Ian’s landfall in South Carolina occurred about an hour and a half after that.

Major flooding occurred early Friday afternoon at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where a storm surge of 6.2 feet and a storm tide of 5.17 feet above Mean Higher High Water (MHHW) was observed at 1:36 p.m. Friday, September 30. This was that location’s third highest water level on record – far below the 8.77 feet recorded during Hurricane Hugo in 1989, but still enough to produce significant flooding. (See Tweets below from Garden City and Lichfield Beach, both within 10 miles of Myrtle Beach). Second place at Myrtle Beach is held by Hurricane Matthew of 2016 (6.13 feet). Records extend back to 1957 at the site.

Mostly minor to moderate flooding from Ian’s storm surge in southeast U.S.

Along the Florida and Georgia coast, Ian’s second U.S landfall has caused mostly minor to moderate coastal flooding, with no areas of major flooding observed. In northeastern Florida near Jacksonville, the St. John’s River at Mayport reported a water level 2.48 feet above Mean Higher High Water (MHHW) on Thursday afternoon, causing moderate flooding. This was the third-highest water level on record there, with records back to 1897. Only Hurricane Matthew in 2016 (3.22 feet) and Irma in 2016 (2.80 feet) brought higher water levels.

Fernandina Beach, Florida, reported that a water level of 3.36 feet on Thursday afternoon also caused moderate flooding, the sixth-highest water level on record. Records extend back to 1897 at the site.

Fort Pulaski, Georgia’s minor storm surge flooding did not rank among the top-10 values on record.

In South Carolina, Charleston Harbor had a crest of 1.16 feet, below the threshold of minor flooding, with the midday Friday high tide. This is below the peak of 1.83 feet on Thursday morning, and not among the 10 highest crests on record there.

The crest of 3.54 feet at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, at 1 p.m. EDT Friday fell just below the threshold for moderate flooding, as the fourth-highest water level on record there, behind Hurricane Hazel (1954), Fran (1996), and Florence (2018). Records extend back to 1954 at that site.

Ian is predicted to transition to an extratropical storm Friday night, and dissipate by Saturday night.

Power out to 1.8 million in Florida, 270,000 in Carolinas, and much of western Cuba

As of 3 p.m. EDT on Friday, September 30, Ian had knocked out power to approximately 1.8 million customers in Florida (approximately 16% of the state’s customers), down from a peak of 2.7 million on Thursday, according to poweroutage.us. In South Carolina, Ian’s winds had knocked out power to 210,000 customers, and 60,000 were without power in North Carolina.

In Cuba, where Ian had caused an island-wide blackout on Tuesday, the power was still out Friday in much of the capital of Havana, as seen in nighttime visible satellite imagery (Figure 3). Reuters reported isolated street protests over the long power outage in Havana on Thursday night. Ian hit western Cuba on Tuesday as a category 3 hurricane with 125 mph winds, killing two people.

Meanwhile, in Puerto Rico, which had suffered an island-wide power outage on September 19 because of Hurricane Fiona, the power was still out to 230,000 customers on Friday, about 16% of the island’s customers.

New system likely to develop in eastern Atlantic

A disturbance that moved off the African coast on Thursday, not yet granted an “invest” number, could develop over the next few days as it drifts generally westward. The broad disturbance was at low latitudes in the eastern tropical Atlantic on Friday, around 200 miles west of the African coast. Convection (showers and thunderstorms) was on the weak and scattered side, and it will likely take several days for any development to occur.

In its Tropical Weather Outlook issued at 2 p.m. EDT Friday, the National Hurricane Center gave the system a 10 percent chance of development by Sunday and a 60 percent chance by Wednesday.

The new disturbance will be moving through a moist mid-level environment free of intense wind shear or a dry Saharan Air Layer and atop warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs) around 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit).

Many of Friday morning’s ensemble runs of the GFS and European models show a tropical depression forming early next week. A break in the subtropical ridge of high pressure should allow the incipient system to angle northward at first, toward the central North Atlantic. Whatever develops could end up being a long-lived pest, as longer-range models suggest the ridge could restrengthen and push the system toward the northwest Atlantic subtropics, where SSTs remain unusually warm. The next name on the Atlantic list is Julia.

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Jeff Masters

Jeff Masters, Ph.D., worked as a hurricane scientist with the NOAA Hurricane Hunters from 1986-1990. After a near-fatal flight into category 5 Hurricane Hugo, he left the Hurricane Hunters to pursue a... More by Jeff Masters