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Nestor lashes Georgia; tornadoes rake Florida

A tornado spawned by Tropical Storm Nestor damaged this car in Cape Coral, Florida, on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019.
Nestor spawned a tornado that damaged this car in Cape Coral, Florida, on Saturday. Photo: Cape Coral Fire Department/Facebook

After Nestor lashed Florida, spawning destructive tornadoes, the post-tropical storm downed trees and caused power outages in Georgia Saturday night with heavy rains and powerful winds, WSB-TV reports.

The latest: The National Hurricane Center said isolated flash flooding was possible across the southeastern U.S. into Sunday. The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Godwinsville, Georgia, and flash-flood alerts for areas in the state including Eastman, Abbeville and Chester.

  • The NHC said at 5pm ET Saturday that gale-force winds would "gradually develop" along the coasts of northeast Florida and Georgia and spread northward to the Carolinas on Sunday.

The big picture: Nestor made landfall on St. Vincent Island, Florida, on Friday as a tropical storm. It spun tornadoes with winds of up to 120 mph, which overturned vehicles, tore off roofs and uprooted trees, per the New York Times.

  • Nearly 13,000 customers were without power in Florida at 4:30pm Saturday, according to poweroutage.us. Most of those affected were in Polk County, where an EF-2 tornado "caused a semi truck to overturn onto another vehicle" on I-4 late Friday, ABC News reports.

Go deeper: The Atlantic Basin's tropical storms and hurricanes in 2019

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.

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