As Nicole threatens the Carolinas and Virginia on Friday with tornadoes and flooding, Florida residents — many still recovering from Hurricane Ian — are picking up the pieces after this week’s storm that killed at least five people and destroyed buildings in the dangerous storm surge and strong winds.   

  In Florida’s Volusia County, at least 49 beachfront properties, including hotels and condos, were deemed “unsafe” in the wake of Nicole, which hit Florida’s east coast south of Vero Beach as a Category 1 hurricane early Thursday before weakening to a tropical storm and it finally became a post-tropical cyclone on Friday afternoon.   

  “The structural damage along our coastline is unprecedented,” Volusia County Executive George Recktenwald said at a news conference, adding that more buildings will likely be identified as breached.   

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  As the storm – the first hurricane to hit the US in November in nearly 40 years – circled Florida, coastal buildings hit by Ian were further affected by coastal erosion.  Deputies went door-to-door Wednesday removing residents from structurally unsound buildings in Volusia County ahead of Nicole’s arrival.   

  In Wilbur-By-The-Sea – a barrier island community off Daytona Beach – 22 homes were evacuated in advance after officials deemed them unsafe.   

  Then, between Nicole, some oceanfront houses collapsed into the ocean.   

  Trip Valigorsky unlocked the front door of his home to see a gaping hole leading to crashing ocean waves where his living room once stood.  Pointing to where the TV and couch were, he told CNN affiliate WKMG he was shocked.   

  “I was here Tuesday night and I saw the wall wearing away and then I woke up Wednesday morning and the wall was completely gone, so I started to evacuate,” Waligorski said.  “And now here we are.”   

  Nicole also pushed a huge volume of water ashore, tearing up the infrastructure already strained by Ian.   

  The storm surge peaked Thursday morning at about 6 feet, sending ocean water surging onto roads.  A lower tide also pushed ashore above the extremely high tides associated with this week’s full moon, keeping water levels high for longer.   

  Homes were nearly dangling from cliffs and hotels in Daytona Beach collapsed into the ocean as a result of the storm, drone video showed.   

  “The devastation is almost impossible to comprehend.  Imagine watching your house collapse into the ocean,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood wrote.   

  While many people in the Carolinas and Georgia received wind warnings earlier in the day, parts of Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York will be under one from Friday night into Saturday morning, according to the National Meteorological Service.  There were gusts up to 50 mph.   

  Tornado watches in effect for several states Friday were canceled from 6 p.m.  ET.   

  That system is expected to produce an additional 1 to 3 inches of rain across the central Appalachians, mid-Atlantic and New England by Saturday morning before moving away from the U.S. East Coast, according to the U.S. Weather Forecast Center.

Today’s GOES-E GeoColor satellite images are rather impressive, helping to display the two main weather news across the country. Tropical Storm Nicole is currently battering the Southeast and a powerful cyclone in the Northern Plains is bringing a major winter storm to the region. pic.twitter.com/nc0OTsZ0Lz — NWS Weather Prediction Center (@NWSWPC) November 10, 2022 As Nicole’s remnants move north through Saturday, her tropical moisture will be absorbed by a separate cold front, which has brought blizzard conditions to the northern Plains, CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam said.

  Heavy rain and gusty winds over 30 mph will make travel along the Interstate 95 corridor difficult.  Meanwhile, air travel will likely be disrupted at many East Coast airports as the storm moves through.  Newark International on Friday night had an average delay of 63 minutes due to high winds, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.   

  As the colossal storm approached Florida, schools and universities were closed, hundreds of flights were canceled, airports shut down and some coastal residents were evacuated.   

  After Nicole passed, streets flooded, roads and homes were damaged, and thousands were left without power.  More than 300,000 customers in Florida were affected by outages earlier.  that number had dropped by Friday afternoon to about 8,000, according to PowerOutage.us.   

  Two people have died after being “electrocuted by a downed power line” in Orange County, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.  Two additional deaths are being investigated as possibly storm-related after a fatal car accident, according to Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings.   

  A 68-year-old Port Canaveral man who was on a yacht early Thursday morning was also killed as it was “struck by waves and the dock,” the Cocoa Police Department said.  After his wife called 911 to report that her husband was in danger, paramedics took the couple to a hospital.  He was later pronounced dead, police said, adding that his cause of death has yet to be determined.   

  Downed power lines on flooded roads are among the many hazards residents must face in the hurricane’s wake as they return to their homes and crews work to clear debris from roads and make emergency repairs to washed-out roads.