Elsa’s center, with sustained winds of 65 mph, was about 50 miles south-southwest of Cedar Key on Florida’s northwest coast as of about 5 a.m. ET.
It was moving north toward the Big Bend region, where it is expected to make landfall Wednesday morning, National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham told CNN.
Besides heavy rain and flooding, Elsa threatens strong winds that could topple trees and power lines in a region that’s already saturated.
“The issue is that (even after landfall), this is going to continue to move” inland toward communities in northern Florida and southern Georgia with winds still at 40 mph, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said Wednesday morning.
“We’ve had a lot of rainfall this past month. If you get winds at 40 mph or 50 mph, some of these trees are going to be falling down,” Myers said.
Because gusts of hurricane strength still are possible, a hurricane warning is in…
