Hurricane Nicole already flooded the Bahamas before making landfall early on Thursday. (Reuters Photo)
Hurricane Nicole made landfall at 3am EST on Thursday (1.30pm Friday IST) along the east coast of Florida, according to the National Hurricane Centre of the United States. It has strengthened to Category 1 hurricane after sweeping through the Bahamas. The rare November hurricane comes just weeks after Florida was battered by Hurricane Ian, one of the most powerful storms to hit the US. Nicole was packing sustained maximum winds of up to 75 miles (120 kilometres) per hour when it hit land.
According to National Hurricane Centre update, the centre of the storm made landfall on North Hutchison Island. The centre had earlier said that Nicole will bring strong winds, a dangerous storm surge and heavy rains.
After making the landfall, the hurricane has weakened into a strong tropical storm, weather.com said. It added that Nicole is just the fourth hurricane to make landfall in the mainland US in the month of November since the mid-19th century, and the first to do so in 37 years.
NPR said in its report that it is now moving west-northwest, adding that the Appalachian Mountains could experience some flooding on Friday.
Forty-five of Florida's 67 counties are under a state of emergency, Governor Ron DeSantis said, while four counties were under mandatory evacuation orders, according to the state's Division of Emergency Management.
DeSantis said 16,000 people had been recruited to respond to power outages following the storm and 600 national guardsmen had been activated.
More than a dozen school districts were closed on Wednesday ahead of the hurricane's landfall. Orlando International Airport too announced on Wednesday that it was ceasing commercial operations.