Tropical Storm Elsa is Making Landfall on North Florida’s Gulf Coast

Tropical Storm Elsa is making landfall along northern Florida’s Gulf Coast, in Taylor County, the National Hurricane Center said.

Tropical Storm Elsa is battering western Florida with heavy rain and strong gusts as it approaches landfall Wednesday morning at its northern Gulf Coast, threatening coastal flooding, wind damage and power outages there and elsewhere in the US Southeast.

Elsa’s center, with sustained winds of 65 mph, was about 35 miles west of Cedar Key on Florida’s northwest coast as of about 8 a.m. ET, the National Hurricane Center said.

It was moving north toward the Big Bend region, where it is expected to make landfall Wednesday morning on a path that likely will take it to Georgia, the Carolinas and eventually the mid-Atlantic coast.

Besides heavy rain and flooding, Elsa threatens winds of 40 mph and higher in already-saturated areas of northern Florida, Georgia and South Carolina -- which could topple trees and power lines.