Watch Tropical Storm Alberto Make Landfall

Subtropical Storm Alberto has made landfall, bringing with it a path of destruction.On Monday, the [...]

By Allison Schonter

Subtropical Storm Alberto has made landfall, bringing with it a path of destruction.

On Monday, the first storm of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season, Alberto, made landfall near Laguna Beach, Florida, just west of Panama City, bringing with it sustained wind speeds of 45 miles per hour as it moved just 9 miles per hour up the Florida Panhandle and into Alabama.

"Heavy rains and gusty winds continue to spread northward over Florida," the National Hurricane Center tweeted prior to Alberto making landfall. "Hazardous storm surge is possible along portions of the central and eastern Gulf Coast beginning Sunday."

Several states, including Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi went into pre-emptive states of emergency on Sunday, and a Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the northern Gulf Coast from the Suwannee River to the Alabama-Florida border.

Bringing with it damaging winds, heavy rainfall, flooding, and storm surges, Alberto has already proven to be deadly, with WYFF-TV Anchor Mike McCormick and photojournalist Aaron Smeltzer of Greenville, South Carolina being killed after a tree fell on their SUV. Both men had been on the job, just having finished an interview, when the large tree fell on their vehicle as they were traveling on U.S. Highway 176 near Tyron in Polk County. Believed to have been a result of loosened roots in the ground due to a week's worth of rain, McCormick and Smeltzer died instantly.

Alberto has also already wreaked havoc in Maryland, where, in Ellicott City, record flash flooding has resulted in Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to declare a state of emergency. With water levels reaching above first floor levels and toppling buildings, several rescues had to be carried out. Currently, U.S. Air Force veteran and Maryland Army National Guard member Eddison Hermond, 39, is missing after he was dragged away by the rushing waters.

Similar flooding has been recorded in neighboring state Virginia.

Along with the devastating flooding, the subtropical storm has also brought power outages.

Classified as a subtropical storm due to its hybrid appearance between a tropical storm and a low-pressure system, having both a warm core and a colder, upper-level low pressure, Alberto is expected to dump 4 to 8 inches of rain from the Florida Panhandle inland to Alabama and western Georgia, with isolated storm totals up to 12 inches. The rainfall is expected to last well into the week and stretch as far as the Ohio Valley.

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