Tropical Storm Isaias moves up the Florida coast…

Bracing for drenching rain and heavy winds, Floridians are hunkering down on Sunday as Tropical Storm Isaias whips the state’s east coast, threatening flash flooding as it goes. But the threat of destructive storm surges in Florida was waning.

At 2 p.m. Eastern time, the center of the storm was about 30 miles offshore, east of Port St. Lucie, Fla., and was moving north-northwest at about eight miles an hour, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Isaias — (which is written Isaías in Spanish and pronounced ees-ah-EE-ahs) — clobbered the Bahamas with hurricane conditions on Saturday and early Sunday after hitting parts of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. It was downgraded to a tropical storm Saturday evening when its sustained winds slipped below 74 m.p.h.; they were about 65 m.p.h. at 2 p.m. Sunday. Forecasters said they were expecting only minimal changes in strength for the next few days.

Flooding from the storm’s heavy rains led to the death of at least one person in Puerto Rico, the island’s Department of Public Safety said on Saturday in a statement. A woman who had been missing since Thursday drowned near Rincón, in the northwest portion of the island.

As it advances northward, the center of the storm may skirt close to the coast of Florida without making landfall, or it may come ashore briefly on Sunday, forecasters said. Storm warnings were posted as far north as Surf City, N.C., with watches extending farther, to Duck, N.C. Forecasters said the storm had the potential to spawn tornadoes in the Carolinas on Monday.

Complicating the emergency response to the storm, reported coronavirus cases continue to rise sharply in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, and health officials have warned that their health care systems could be strained beyond capacity with the influx of new patients. The situation would worsen if the storm knocks out power across wide areas or forces evacuations of hospitals and nursing homes…..

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