RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
A big storm hit the Florida Panhandle yesterday with winds of up to 40 miles per hour. Since then, Alberto has been downgraded from a subtropical storm to a depression. But as the storm's remnants move inland, heavy rain and flash floods are possible for parts of Florida and for Alabama. NPR's Scott Neuman has more.
SCOTT NEUMAN, BYLINE: Alberto made an afternoon landfall near Panama City on the Florida Panhandle, putting a damper on Memorial Day festivities. But it was an inconvenience for most people, such as Tanner Adkins, who works at a sports equipment store in Pensacola. He stayed busy ahead of the storm, making sure all the shop's Jet Skis were secured.
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TANNER ADKINS: We've been getting them gassed up, clean and up on the dry dock storage underneath the bridge just so, you know, they don't have a chance of washing away on the beach or hitting the jetties or anything like that.
NEUMAN: After last year's devastating hurricane season that saw Category 4 Irma make a landfall in the Keys and then tear up the state's west coast, nobody is taking any chances this time around. Ahead of Alberto, Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency and warned residents not to let their guard down.
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RICK SCOTT: This is the beginning of hurricane season. Everybody's got to start the process of getting prepared - three days of water, three days of food; have your medicine; know your evacuation routes.
NEUMAN: Already on Monday, Alberto had spawned heavy rain as far away as North Carolina, where a local television news crew - reporter Mike McCormick and photojournalist Aaron Smeltzer from WYFF News 4 - were killed on a rain-soaked stretch of U.S. Highway 176 near the Carolinas border. A tree fell on their vehicle. Tryon Fire Chief Geoffrey Tennant said he'd spoken to the two journalists just minutes before receiving news of their fatal accident.
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GEOFFREY TENNANT: It personally affected me a little bit because I had done an interview with Mr. McCormick about 10 minutes before we got the call, and we had talked a little bit about how he wanted us to stay safe and how we wanted him to stay safe. And then, of course, 10, 15 minutes later, we get the call, and it was him.
NEUMAN: The National Weather Service has issued flash-flood watches and warnings for parts of Florida, much of Alabama and western Georgia through Wednesday. Scott Neuman, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF AETHER'S "FLOWER IN WINTER") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
