Tropical Storm Eta dumps blustery rain on Florida west coast

By CURT ANDERSON and FREIDA FRISARO Associated Press
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Tropical Storm Eta has dumped torrents of rain on Florida’s west coast as it slogged over the state after making landfall north of the heavily populated Tampa Bay area. The National Hurricane Center in Miami predicts that after coming ashore Thursday morning, Eta will move northeast across Florida. Eta briefly gained hurricane strength at midweek before weakening to a tropical storm nearing landfall. Eta first hit Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane, killing at least 120 people in Central America and Mexico before moving into the Gulf of Mexico.