MIAMI: Tropical storm Chantal appeared to have made landfall near Litchfield Beach in the eastern state of South Carolina, the US National Hurricane Centre said today.
The tropical storm, which formed in the Atlantic, registered maximum sustained winds of about 65kph and is located about 24km northwest of Conway, South Carolina, and about 130km west of the port city of Wilmington in New Hanover County, North Carolina.
The NHC in Miami, Florida, forecasts that Chantal will move further inland over South Carolina and then North Carolina today, with a risk of flash flooding, its latest advisory said.
The storm is expected to weaken further as it moves inland, with forecasts indicating that it will dissipate into a trough of low pressure by Monday, the NHC added.