Alabama - Alberto, the first storm of the 2018
Atlantic hurricane season, spawned scattered flooding in
Alabama as it weakened into a subtropical depression on Tuesday,
a day after two journalists were killed in North Carolina when a
tree fell on their car.
In Maryland, searchers on Monday found the body of a man
swept away when a flash flood triggered by a separate storm tore
through the main street of a historic town.
Near hurricane-force winds from Alberto dropped to about 30
miles per hour (48 km per hour) as it lost strength while
crossing the Gulf of Mexico and making landfall in the U.S.
South, the National Weather Service said.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) canceled coastal
warnings and watches for the storm, which spun up days before
the formal start of the hurricane season on June 1.
Local media in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle reported
scattered flash flooding, downed trees and minor power outages
as Alberto rumbled north. About half of Alabama's 67 counties
were under a flash flood watch.
Alberto was forecast to weaken to a "remnant low pressure"
system by Tuesday evening as it moves into the Tennessee Valley
and then the Ohio Valley, the weather service said.
The NHC warned the storm would dump rains of 2-6 inches
(6-15 cm), with up to 12 inches over north Florida and Alabama
through Tuesday night. It could deliver up to 6 inches of rain
in some areas as it moves toward lower Michigan by Wednesday
evening, officials said.
Karen Clark & Co, a risk-modeling firm, on Tuesday estimated
the insured losses from Alberto at $50 million.
In Maryland, searchers found the body of Eddison Hermond,
39, who was swept away by a torrent of water in historic
Ellicott City on Sunday, the Howard County Police Department
said on Twitter.
Hermond was swept up as he tried to help a shop owner who
had escaped flood waters with her cat, police said. The flooding
was the second time Ellicott City had been devastated by high
water in two years.
Two television journalists covering the worsening weather in
North Carolina were killed on Monday by a falling tree that
struck their car. Anchor Mike McCormick and camera operator
Aaron Smeltzer from Greenville, South Carolina's, WYFF News were
on Highway 176 when the tree came down after heavy rains
saturated the ground, police said.
After Alberto's passage, Royal Dutch Shell Plc was
sending workers back to the eastern Gulf of Mexico and Chevron
Corp restored some production on Monday.
Four deadly hurricanes struck the United States last year,
killing at least 144 people and causing billions of dollars in
damage, massive power outages and devastating hundreds of
thousands of homes and businesses, according to the NHC.