Tropical Storm Claudette Hits Florida

(CBS/AP)
Tropical Storm Claudette made landfall on the Florida coast near Fort Walton Beach early Monday, August 17th, making it the first to hit the U.S. mainland in 2009.

Later it weakened to a tropical depression as it traveled over the Florida panhandle into Alabama.

Claudette's maximum sustained winds were near 50 mph, but it's expected to weaken as it moves over land.

Some power outages and flooding occurred in areas, but no major damage was reported, CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports, adding that the peak of hurricane season is Sept. 10, and the season concludes Nov. 30.

Condominiums on Pensacola Beach warned residents to bring balcony furniture indoors as winds from Claudette were anticipated to strengthen. A trickle of cars and SUVs with surfboards on top headed east along the coast as surfers were catching waves whipped up by Claudette.

On Pensacola Beach, the National Park Service closed low-lying roads that connect the restaurants and hotels to the undeveloped National Seashore and historic Fort Pickens Fort. The Park Service said campers would be ordered to leave the area because of the likelihood of the road flooding.

John Dosh, manager of Emergency Management... "This event is a good example of how quickly a tropical storm can develop. We won't always have a lot of warning. This is why citizens need to be prepared throughout hurricane season."

In Panama City, the Bay County Emergency Operations Center opened a shelter at a local high school for residents of low-lying areas and people with special needs.

Alexander Hanrahan, a tourist from London, watched Claudette roll into Pensacola. He said his family feared the storm after watching the television in their beach-front condominium.

"We were actually deliberating whether to get out on the road, but when we got out it was nothing. My mom was nervous because she's not used to driving here anyway," Hanrahan said.

Despite the storms, a warmer weather pattern called El Nino over the Pacific Ocean is generally expected to damper the formation of tropical storms in the Caribbean and Atlantic this year, said Brian Daly, a meteorologist with the national weather service in Mobile, Alabama.

"It's pretty frequent that an El Nino year would be somewhat delayed with fewer storms," Daly said.

CBS News correspondent Hari Sreenivasan reports that forecasters recently scaled back their predictions for this year, saying they expect only 10 named storms instead of 11, and just four hurricanes instead of five.

"Typically, in May, June and July, it's fairly inactive, but right now in the middle of August is when see things really begin to ramp up, approaching a peak right around September 10," said Jeff Berardelli, a meteorologist with CBS station WFOR-TV in Miami.