St. Lucie County - Wednesday November 9, 2022: Time to hunker down and wait it out. Tropical Storm Nicole is knocking on our door and public safety officials are urging residents to remain indoors until the storm passes.
At a briefing held at the St. Lucie County Emergency Operations Center this morning, County Administrator Howard Tipton said the track of Tropical Storm Nicole has shifted further south
“Hurricane force winds are possible around 1 a.m. Thursday morning. The center of Nicole coming on shore some where in northern Martin County as a Category 1 Hurricane. And from a coastal flooding perspective, this storm as it moves south, means that we’re going to see a slightly higher surge and be on the wetter side of the storm.”
And that’s not good news for the Treasure Coast. “That has concerned for us in a number of areas. Obviously low-lying areas are going to see from that sea level rise impacts. We are going to see significant beach erosion. Our area is also under a tropical storm surge warning. This is one of our biggest concerns.”
And if you’re out on one of the barrier islands the window for voluntarily evacuating is rapidly closing. "Once wind speeds hit 45 mph we’ll close the bridges, both north and south Hutchinson Island because they won’t be safe for people to cross," said St. Lucie County Sheriff Chief Deputy Brian Hester.
Law enforcement and fire and rescue personnel will be station out on the barrier islands throughout the storm. “We will have personnel out patrolling till we determine that it is no longer safe to do so. At that point we’ll pull our personal into safe locations and the calls will be assessed on a lifesaving basis as they come in. As soon as the winds die down to where we feel its safe enough, we’ll put personal back on the street immediately.”