Hurricane Irma, which was reclassified as a tropical storm early Monday, saved some of its worst storm surge impacts for northeast Florida, coastal Georgia, and South Carolina.
In Jacksonville, a record surge flooded downtown, leading the National Weather Service to issue a flash flood emergency as the water rose rapidly on Monday. Hours of strong winds blowing the ocean inland, and preventing water from the St. Johns River from escaping back into the ocean, helped worsen the flood situation in Jacksonville.
The flooding in Jacksonville, while predicted, is some of the worst the city has seen. Despite being weaker than Hurricane Matthew was when it passed by the city in 2016, Tropical Storm Irma helped push a greater amount of water onshore, and it struck right at the time of high tide. This caused the city to see its highest storm surge flooding on record. Read more...
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