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Tropical Storm Claudette update: Tornadoes, heavy rain expected as death toll mounts

The National Hurricane Center has issued warnings for parts of North Carolina with a possibility of tornadoes and heavy rain

Claudette has regained tropical storm status yet again. The calamity which has been deemed responsible for deaths of 13 people - including a 29-year-old man Cody Fox and his nine-month-old daughter Ariana in a horrific vehicular pileup in Alabama, is now looming over the Carolinas. At 5 am ET on Monday, June 21, 2021, the National Hurricane Center has issued Advisory 15 along with a couple of key messages for the public. 

"Heavy rain from Claudette will continue over the North Carolina coast this morning. Isolated flash, urban, and small stream flooding impacts are possible," a message read. "Tropical storm conditions are expected along portions of the North Carolina coast through this morning where a Tropical Storm Warning is in effect," read another message. The maximum sustained wind speed is 40 mph (65kmph) and the area is currently on hurricane and tropical storm warning. A 'life-threatening' tornado spurred by Claudette ripped through Woodridge in Chicago on June 20 at midnight. 

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An earlier update stated that winds from the tropical depression were expected to reach up to 35 mph. Rainfall of one to three inches was expected through June 21 morning, while some isolated areas were expected to get as much as five inches. Currently, the storm has been located at 65 miles (100 kilometers) east-southeast of Raleigh, North Carolina. Its moving east-northeast at 25 mph (41 kph), according to forecasters. 

The storm was expected to move into the Atlantic Ocean later in the morning, then travel near the south of Nova Scotia on Tuesday. A tropical storm warning was in effect from Cape Fear, North Carolina, to the town of Duck on the Outer Banks. “An isolated tornado is possible early this morning over parts of the Outer Banks,” said Brad Reinhart, a specialist with the National Hurricane Center. “By afternoon, we expect the system to be well offshore," he added.

"Bands of heavier showers & T-Storms associated with Tropical Storm Claudette moves across NE NC and eastern areas of Hampton Roads, including the eastern shore early this morning. Locally heavy rainfall & a tornado or two are possible. Stay weather aware this morning!" tweeted National Weather Service, Virginia. "We're in between two systems right now: Tropical Storm Claudette to the southeast and storms along a cold front to the northwest. Claudette will miss us, but the cold front and storms won't, as those arrive later today," read a forecast by WDVM Weather. "A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for coastal North Carolina. Claudette will quickly move off the Mid-Atlantic coast today, and pass south of Nova Scotia Tuesday before dissipating. #Tropics," a Twitter update from a meteorologist read. 

Damages spurred by Tropical Storm Claudette include the destruction of at least 50 homes in a small town just north of the Florida Border on Sunday, June 20. “It kind of affected everybody,” Sheriff Heath Jackson in Escambia County said. “But with those mobile homes being built so close together it can take a toll on them a lot more than it can on houses that are spread apart," he added. In Alabama, a woman was stuck inside her car after a massive tree fell on it in the early hours of June 20. It happened at Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway and S Eugenia Place in northwest Atlanta. Fire crews rescued the woman who was later admitted to Grady Hospital.