Hurricane Watch: Will Nate Hit Georgia?

ATLANTA, GA — With memories of Hurricane Irma fresh in mind, Georgians on Wednesday began eyeing the oceans once again as a storm expected to become Tropical Storm Nate began roiling in the Caribbean on a path that could bring it this way.

Still officially known as Tropical Depression 16, the weather system was just off the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua as of 2 p.m. Wednesday. The National Hurricane Center said it was likely to become a tropical storm either later the day or Wednesday night.

The storm was moving toward the northwest at about 7 mph, a path that would move it into the Gulf of Mexico and threaten a swath of the southeastern United States from Louisiana to Florida.

Current projections from the NHC have tropical storm-force winds reaching the U.S. as early as Friday night, should the storm veer toward southern Florida, or Saturday morning if it made landfall on the panhandle or further west. (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

After making landfall, projections show that the storm could roll through Georgia in much the way that Hurricane Irma did.

After devastating the Caribbean Islands, Irma made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane on Sept. 10, then rolled into Georgia the next day, first as a tropical storm then, ultimately as a tropical depression.

Four deaths in the state were connected to the storm — two directly and two when a mother and child who had evacuated to Georgia from Florida were killed in a traffic accident. Roughly 1.5 million Georgians were without power at the height of the storm and coastal communities were flooded.

In all, the storm did more than $330 million worth of property damage in the state, insurance officials said.

On its current track, the storm that could become Nate was expected to near the coast of Nicaragua early Thursday, move across northeastern Nicaragua and eastern Honduras late Thursday and emerge in the northwestern Caribbean Sea on Friday.

The governments of Nicaragua and Honduras had issued tropical storm warnings as of Wednesday morning.

At 11 a.m. Wednesday, the tropical depression had sustained winds around 35 m.p.h., with higher gusts. That's enough to be considered a tropical storm, if a center forms. It would become a hurricane if it develops winds of at least 74 m.p.h.

Rainfall amounts of 15-20 inches were expected across parts of Nicaragua, with isolated maximum amounts of 30 inches possible. Parts of Costa Rica and Panama were expecting 5-10 inches of rain, with isolated areas getting as much as 20 inches.

Life-threatening flash floods and mudslides were a possibility, according to the hurricane center.

It was too early Wednesday to know exactly which way the storm will head, or whether it will pick up enough steam to become a hurricane. But the National Weather Service in Georgia was warning that impacts from the storm likely will be felt locally by this weekend and said heavy rain and gusty winds are increasingly likely.

Photos via National Hurricane Center