Tropical Storm Andrea Brings High Winds And Heavy Rain As It Makes Its Way Up The East Coast; Travel Advisory For NYC

Tropical Storm Andrea has packed a wet wallop in the southeastern U.S., and it's expected to bring heavy rains and high winds to much of the Eastern Seaboard through the early part of Saturday.

In New York City, a hazardous travel advisory was declared through early Saturday morning as Andrea makes it way north, New York 1 reported. The storm was expected to bring the potential for flooding beginning Thursday evening.

There have been far bigger storms with heavier winds -- this storm is certainly no Sandy. And Andrea didn't pose a threat to U.S. energy interests in the Gulf of Mexico, according to Reuters. But this first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season has unleashed damaging winds, even though the maximum sustained winds of 45-50 mph that were measured early Friday weren't as strong Andrea's winds when the storm made landfall on Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The high winds have been enough to bring serious injury to woman in Palm Beach County, Fla., on Thursday, when she was hit by debris from an oak tree that flew through a bedroom window, according to the National Weather Service in Miami.

Flash-flood warnings extended from Florida through coastal communities north to Virginia, CNN reported. And a longer stretch of the East Coast -- in 13 states, from Georgia to Maine -- is under flash-flood watches. Another words, a major drenching could do quite a number on sewers, rivers and creeks up the coast.

The watch area includes Washington, D.C., where, the National Weather Service predicts, up to 6 inches of rain Friday could fall, and the aforementioned New York City, where forecasters say 1 to 2 inches of rain an hour could fall on Saturday, CNN said.

Maine's coast, including the city of Portland, could get up to 3 inches of wet stuff by the end of the weekend.

Andrea spawned multiple tornadoes in Florida -- including one that tore a roof off of a Gulfport restaurant after making landfall over the Big Bend area, Reuters reported.

According to Jack Beven, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, Andrea will probably remain a tropical storm for a couple days as it pours heavy rain on Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. "It might be just inland and it might be just a little off shore," Beven said. "It's going to be a weather-maker" as it moves north up the Atlantic Coast.

On Saturday, Andrea is expected to merge with a frontal system and become a Nor'easter as it continues to travel up the coast and toward Nova Scotia, according to news reports.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. The U.S. government's top climate agency warned in an annual forecast last month that this year's season could be "extremely active" with 13 to 20 tropical storms, seven to 11 of which are expected to become hurricanes.

Three of the six hurricanes could become major at Category 3 or above, with winds of more than 110 mph (177 kph), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.