Tropical
Storm Elsa lost its strength as it moved into the United States after making landfall
in Florida on Wednesday and lashing the Gulf Coast of the southern US state
with wind and rain.

The center
of the storm, which was downgraded from a Category 1 hurricane, made landfall
in Taylor County along the Gulf Coast of northern Florida, according to the
National Hurricane Center.

Elsa was
logged as the first hurricane of this year’s Atlantic season before being
downgraded to a tropical storm again

According
to the NHC, Elsa was lashing in with a maximum sustained wind speed of 50 miles
per hour (85 kilometers per hour) at 2:00 pm local time (1800 GMT). The weakening
of the storm is expected to continue through Thursday as Elsa moves over land
into the country on a northern trajectory.

Tampa airport in Florida suspended commercial flights from Tuesday into Wednesday in preparation
of the landfall, but the storm ended up hitting well to the north of the third-largest city in the state.

The NHC warned
that the western and northern portions of the Florida Peninsula are expected to
get between three and six inches of rain. If the warning turns out to be true, the
area could see a considerable amount of flooding.

NHC also
said that tornadoes were possible on Wednesday in northern Florida,
southeastern Georgia and eastern South Carolina.

Florida
Governor Ron DeSantis urged residents to take precautions.

“This
is not a time to joyride. You do have hazardous conditions out there,” AFP
quoted DeSantis as saying.

Lieutenant
Governor Jeanette Nunez called on Floridians to be prepared for the possibility
of power blackouts and to stockpile adequate supplies of food and water.

Over the
weekend, Elsa battered Jamaica and Cuba, claiming at least three lives as it
cut a path of destruction through the Caribbean.

Elsa
claimed two lives in the Dominican Republic and a third in the island state of
Santa Lucia, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency said.

Elsa had
threatened to complicate an already challenging search mission for survivors of
the June 24 deadly condo tower collapse in Surfside, a town north of Miami
Beach on Florida’s east coast.

But the storm made landfall on the opposite coast allowing search teams to continue
their work largely interrupted although the search operations were ended on Wednesday. The recovery work will continue.

The
confirmed death toll from the condo disaster rose to 46 on Wednesday with the
discovery of 10 more bodies. A total of 94 people are still listed as missing.