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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

INDIAN HARBOUR BEACH, Fla. – After assurances Sunday that Satellite Beach soon will test groundwater for toxic chemicals, cancer survivors from that area urged more people who grew up there and were diagnosed with cancer at a young age to push health officials and politicians to take action, according to News 6 partner Florida Today.

[READ: Cancer cluster in Satellite High School graduates]

They also put out a public plea for retired NASA scientists, statisticians or any other researchers who might be able to help crack the mystery of why so many seem to get cancer in neighborhoods near Patrick Air Force Base.

"If any community in the state can figure this out, it's ours," Julie Greenwalt, a Satellite Beach native and radiation oncologist in Jacksonville, told a crowd of about 100 gathered Sunday in a banquet room at Kiwi Tennis Club.

Many were cancer survivors or friends and family members of survivors. Some donned head scarfs to cover hair loss from radiation and chemotherapy.

Greenwalt recently has raised concerns about a possible cancer cluster in the Satellite Beach and South Patrick Shores area. Greenwalt, who grew up in Suntree but attended Satellite High herself, survived cancer and was diagnosed at age 30, less than a year after her best friend, a fellow Satellite High grad, died of cancer.

At least 20 Satellite High alumni, most of whom graduated within a few years of each other, have gotten various kinds of cancer. Three of them passed away.

Sunday's gathering was to delegate tasks and plan how to move the investigation forward.

State and federal health officials say they're taking the concerns in Brevard very seriously, with all the usual caveats about the difficulties in proving cancer clusters or that their causes are beyond random chance.

The cancer survivors have pointed to a litany of suspected possible causes, including drinking water, sprinkler water, local radar at Patrick and elsewhere, and hidden hazards from drums of unknown waste in yet discovered locations. Or it could be some combination of those factors, they say.

Some expressed skepticism regarding a late 1980s investigation of South Patrick Shores cancer and other health concerns by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In its 1992 report of the investigation, the agency concluded, "The soil and the groundwater sampling in the area did not indicate significant contamination" and based on the available data the agency considered the site to be of "no apparent public health hazard."

The concerns rekindled in May, after residents in Satellite Beach and Cocoa Beach posted on Facebook a recent Military Times story about cancer fears surrounding firefighting foams that contain fluorinated chemicals. Patrick Air Force Base had used the chemicals for decades, which some of the cancer survivors fear may now be lurking underground in water tables or in the Indian River Lagoon, where they played and fished as children. But new science makes it unclear if the base or some other yet-to-be-found factors are at play.

The fire foam chemicals, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), are unregulated. But science is finding that even at extremely low exposures, the compounds are implicated in some types of cancer, thyroid defects, immune suppression and pregnancy complications, according to a scientific panel that examined the chemicals from 2005 to 2013 and recent scientific studies.

Like petroleum and dry-cleaning solvent plumes, the compounds can migrate long distances in sandy soils like those on the beach. They have turned up in groundwater at Patrick Air Force Base in 2014 and 2017 at thousands of times the federal government's current lifetime health advisory level for drinking water — one sample more than 61,000 times.

But beachside communities have been on either the city of Melbourne's or Cocoa's water system since the late 1950s. So the pathway of any potential exposures remains unclear.

Greenwalt remembers playing on the soccer team at Satellite High, running through the sprinklers. The school uses onsite groundwater for watering the fields.

"We would drink the sprinkler water," Greenwalt said.

Tests of Melbourne's and Cocoa's water systems for the fluorinated chemicals in 2013 and 2014 detected none of the compounds, according to Florida Department of Environmental Protection data.

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