Gordon dumps rain; watch the tropics

Tropical Storm Gordon hit the Gulf Coast near the Mississippi-Alabama line Tuesday night and dumped as much as 6 inches of rain in portions of Escambia County, Ala., as eyes now get focused on Hurricane Florence and two possible tropical depressions coming off of the African coast.

The heavy rains in the area forced the closure of a portion of Upper Creekk Road and at least one school bus to be delayed in Flomaton.

Escambia County Emergency Management Director David Adams said radar images from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration showed the west end of the county around Atmore receiving up to 6 inches of rain during the past 24 hours. He said those figures began to drop toward the east with Flomaton being in the 4 to 5 inch range and rainfall dropping further east and north.

"There weren't a lot of surprises," Adams said. "We got a little more rain than had been forecast."

Gordon hit the Gulf Coast as a tropical storm with sustained wins of 70 mph and it takes a storm to reach 74 mph before being classified as a hurricane.

Hurricane Florence, with sustained winds of 125 mph is now churning across the Atlantic and weather officials note two other tropical depressions behind Florence. If they develop into tropical storms they will be named Helene and Isaac.

Adams said the current path of Florence is toward Bermuda.

"We're in the peak of hurricane season," Adams said. "We don't want to alarm anybody, but it's something we can't ignore and we need to pay attention to."

"As Gordon showed us, they can crop up at any time so people need to watch the news and pay attention," Adams said.

Escambia County (Ala.) Engineer Bill Bridges said Wednesday morning there had not been any major problems, but noted a section of Upper Creek Road just outside the Flomaton Town limits was shutdown.

Bridges said storm water underminded part of the road, which forced the closure. The road is closed from Powerline Road to Brock Lane.

Bridges said until the water goes down, he's not sure whether the culverts will need replacing or just the road. But he did say the road would be closed for at least two days.

"We've had water over the road in several places, but nothing major," Bridges said. "I'm sure we've got some dirt roads that suffered damage."

A school bus was delayed Wednesday morning on Junction Road in Flomaton when the driver approached a section that had water over the road. The bus was later able to pass by.

Flomaton Fire Chief Steve Stanton said another portion of Upper Creek Road was under water early Wednesday morning, but the drainage quickly solved the problem.

"We've had firemen out checking the roads," Stanton said. "If we don't think it's safe to pass we stop traffic, but the only real problem was on Upper Creek Road."

There were also reports of 'spotty' power outages, but no wide-spread outages due to the storm. Officials also said there have been no reports of wind damage in the area.