Tuesday, May 29,2012
By: Carrie Van Brunt-Wiley
While hurricane season doesn't officially start until later this week, the second named Atlantic storm of the year came ashore Monday and left minor damage across Florida and Georgia.
Roughly 20,000 people in the Jacksonville area were left without electricity for some time, as downed tree limbs knocked out power and likely caused multiple home insurance claims.
Authorities told The Associated Press that there were no storm-related traffic accidents as of Tuesday morning, and no injuries had been reported. However, the storm did cause many Memorial Day events to be cancelled. Officials said they were lucky that, because it was still May, the storm was relatively weak.
"We're very fortunate this did not become a hurricane," Florida Governor Rick Scott told the AP. "If it had been a couple of months later, we could have had a Category 3 hurricane."
The storm caused a great deal of confusion among some local residents, as the Florida Times-Union reported that the Jacksonville Transportation Authority shut down bus service due to downed trees and blocked roads. However, some riders were unaware of the stoppage until they had already gone to work.
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