The storm, a rare occurrence this late in the year, sparked mandatory evacuation orders just weeks after Florida was battered by Hurricane Ian.
However, just an hour after Nicole made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane, it was downgraded to a tropical storm, the US-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in a statement today at 9am.
The NHC said Nicole was packing sustained maximum winds of up to 110kph.
The storm had passed over the Bahamas yesterday, with the level of destruction not immediately clear.
A tropical storm warning was issued for Florida’s eastern coast from the city of Boca Raton to the boundary between the Flagler and Volusia counties, the NHC said.
“Strong winds, dangerous storm surge and waves, and heavy rains continue over a large area,” it said.
Forty-five of the state’s 67 counties were under a state of emergency, governor Ron DeSantis said, while four counties were under mandatory evacuation orders, according to the state’s Division of Emergency Management.
At least 60,000 customers in the affected areas were without electricity, according to PowerOutage, with the Brevard county being the worst hit.
In preparation for the storm’s impact, DeSantis said 16,000 people had been recruited to respond to power outages and 600 national guardsmen had been activated.
The death toll from Ian, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the US, stands at more than 100 in Florida alone.
NASA launch delay
Nicole has raised concerns that a long-delayed Nasa rocket launch could be disrupted again.
The storm is heading towards Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre, located near Florida’s eastern city of Orlando, having already disrupted plans to launch the agency’s most powerful rocket next week.
The Artemis 1 mission had been due to launch on Nov 14, but Nasa said Tuesday it would be delayed to Nov 16. A backup launch date has been set for Nov 19.
Nasa said it would leave the giant 98m SLS rocket on the launch pad, where it had been placed several days before.
Some experts have voiced concern that the rocket, which is estimated to cost several billion dollars, could be damaged by debris from the hurricane if it remains exposed.
After two launch attempts were scrubbed this summer because of technical problems, the rocket had to be returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building to protect it from Hurricane Ian.
The un-crewed mission aims to bring the US a step closer to returning astronauts to the moon five decades after humans last walked on its surface.