Alberto Weakening And Moving Away

Satellite: Tropics Weather Plus Streaming Video Updates Public Advisory | Charleston, SC Radar Loop | Jacksonville Radar Loop Track Tropical Storm Alberto Widespread heavy rain is over. Only a few showers remain.

Alberto provided us with anywhere from 1-7 inches of much needed rain. Jacksonville Beach had some fence damage near Beach Blvd. And in Yulee some trees were uprooted.

Winds will still gust to near 40 mph.

CRYSTAL RIVER, FL (AP) -- David Garrick could not help but smile at two manatees exploring his bayside apartment building's submerged front lawn. Tropical Storm Alberto could have been worse, and instead brought some of relief to a parched, storm-weary state.

Rainfall from the first tropical storm of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season extinguished 18 wildfires, state officials said. Emergency planners celebrated a not-so-dry run of disaster plans without any immediate reports of serious injuries or deaths.

Residents sandbagged homes and businesses as waters rose thigh-high in some neighborhoods. But many people seemed to accept flooding as part of coastal life.

Pat Fitzpatrick said his house flooded three in the past decade before he sold it and moved into one of Garrick's apartments.

"I told my buddies I'm going to buy a 75-foot boat and just live on the water," he said as water inched toward his apartment.

Alberto made landfall Tuesday afternoon about 50 miles southeast of Tallahassee with 40 mph-winds -- down from 65 mph in the morning and well below the 74 mph hurricane threshold that forecasters thought it might cross.

Hurricane specialist Stacy Stewart pointed out that the difference between a strong tropical storm and a Category 1 hurricane was minimal.

"We never predicted a major hurricane. We just said maybe a low-level hurricane," Stewart said. "It was 70 mph. The difference in 5 mph is nothing. It just happens to be that one is called a tropical storm and the other is called a hurricane."

"What this should show people is you don't need a significant hurricane to get flooding in that part of the state," he said.

The prospect of a hurricane hitting the state less than two weeks into the season threw a scare into Florida, and more than 20,000 were ordered evacuated as Alberto closed in.

"The evacuations went as planned," Gov. Jeb Bush said. "I can assure you that if a stronger storm comes our way, that we have a great team."

It was unclear how many of those ordered to evacuate their homes actually left.

"I think overall it could have been worse. We would have evacuated if there was a serious storm, but this wasn't," said Cedar Key resident Leslie Sturmer.

If Alberto had struck as a hurricane, it would be have been an alarming start to the season, which began June 1. No hurricane has hit the United States this early in the hurricane season in 40 years.

Tampa and other areas got 4 to 6 inches of rain by Tuesday evening, and forecasters said the northeastern coast of Florida and the coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas would be vulnerable to tornadoes for up to several days until Alberto cleared the area.

But National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield said that overall, Alberto "shouldn't be life-threatening by any means, as long as people are careful, and especially surfers."

A total of about 21,000 homes and businesses lost power during the storm. All but 4,300 of those customers had electricity restored by early evening.

Federal, state and local officials said the storm gave them real-world practice on the lessons learned from the slow response to some of last year's hurricanes. Hurricane specialists said they ran into a few computer glitches but nothing that couldn't be fixed by the next storm.

"You can train all you want, but nothing beats the real deal," said state Emergency Management spokesman Mike Stone.

At 5 a.m. EDT, Alberto had weakened to a tropical depression over South Carolina and all tropical storm warnings were discontinued, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said. The tropical depression had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph and was moving northeast near 21 mph, forecasters said. The center of the tropical depression was located about 35 miles south-southwest of Columbia, S.C. Forecasters said Alberto is expected to lose tropical characteristics later in the day but said some re-strengthening was possible.

Scientists have predicted an active 2006 storm season, with 16 named storms, six of them major hurricanes. Last year's hurricane season was the most destructive on record and the busiest in 154 years of storm tracking, with a record 28 named storms and a record 15 hurricanes.

Associated Press Writers Mitch Stacy in Cedar Key, Brendan Farrington in Steinhatchee, Fla., David Royse in Tallahassee, Fla., and Michelle Spitzer and Jennifer Kay in Miami contributed to this report.