Nate Thrashes Gulf Coast; To Become Welcome Vermont Soaker

Storm surge flooding from Hurricane Nate in Biloxi,
Mississppi last night. Photo by Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images

As expected, Hurricane Nate smashed ashore first near the mouth of the Mississippi river and then near Biloxi, Mississippi last night packing 85 mph winds.

As of early this morning, Nate was rapidly weakening, again, as expected, as it races northeastward up the spine of the southern Appalachians.

The worse effects of Nate were the storm surge, which caused flooding along the coasts of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Louisiana.

Media images showed something like four feet of water inside the Golden Nugget casino in Biloxi, and waves surging inland from the beaches.

Perhaps 300,000 or more people lost electricity in the storm zone - not as bad as strong hurricanes Irma and Harvey, but still a mess. Flash flooding is possible as the heavy rains associated with Nate pour down on the hilly terrain of northern Alabama and Georgia and on up into Tennessee and Georgia.

Nate moved far enough east of New Orleans to spare that city any severe flooding.

The worst effects of Nate occurred in Central America when the storm was still just a tropical depression. There, the storm unleashed flash floods which killed 28 people.

Overall in the United States, Nate was bad, but certainly not as terrible as Irma and Harvey.

The remnants of Nate will continue to move north and northeast, and go right across New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine tomorrow. That's nothing to worry about, since winds will not be a factor by the time it reaches here.

True, the rather heavy rain with Nate's remnants will interfere with Columbus Day leaf peepers, but we do need the precipitation. Most of Vermont and surrounding regions can expect an inch or two of rain out of this. I don't anticipate any flooding problems.