PHOTOS: Tropical Storm Elsa lashes Florida after tearing through Cuba
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CEDAR KEY, FL - JULY 07: Tropical Storm Elsa makes landfall on July 7, 2021 in Cedar Key, Florida. Storm warnings remain in effect for parts of Florida's west coast as Elsa made landfall on Wednesday morning. After hitting Cuba on Monday, causing flooding and mudslides, Elsa is expected to bring strong winds and rain as it heads north in the coming days. (Photo by Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images)
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Pedestrians dash across the intersection of Greene and Duval streets as heavy winds and rain associated with Tropical Storm Elsa passes Key West, Fla., on Tuesday, July 6, 2021. The weather was getting worse in southern Florida on Tuesday morning as Tropical Storm Elsa began lashing the Florida Keys, complicating the search for survivors in the condo collapse and prompting a hurricane watch for the peninsula's upper Gulf Coast. (Rob O'Neal/The Key West Citizen via AP)
Pedestrians dash across the intersection of Greene and Duval streets as heavy winds and rain associated with Tropical Storm Elsa passes Key West, Fla., on Tuesday, July 6, 2021. The weather was getting worse in southern Florida on Tuesday morning as Tropical Storm Elsa began lashing the Florida Keys, complicating the search for survivors in the condo collapse and prompting a hurricane watch for the peninsula's upper Gulf Coast. (Rob O'Neal/The Key West Citizen via AP)
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Determined visitors head for Sloppy Joe's Bar while crossing a flooded Duval Street as heavy winds and rain pass over Key West, Fla., Tuesday, July 6, 2021. The weather was getting worse in southern Florida on Tuesday morning as Tropical Storm Elsa began lashing the Florida Keys, complicating the search for survivors in the condo collapse and prompting a hurricane watch for the peninsula's upper Gulf Coast. (Rob O'Neal/The Key West Citizen via AP)
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Athos Karistinos, 13, center, and his brother, Anastasios Karistinos, 16, emerge from their family's gift shop, Sponge Diver Supply, after helping their father fortify the windows and doors at the business on Dodecanese Blvd at the Tarpon Springs, Fla., Sponge Docks on Tuesday, July 6, 2021, where residents and business owners were preparing for the arrival of Tropical Storm Elsa. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
Athos Karistinos, 13, center, and his brother, Anastasios Karistinos, 16, emerge from their family's gift shop, Sponge Diver Supply, after helping their father fortify the windows and doors at the business on Dodecanese Blvd at the Tarpon Springs, Fla., Sponge Docks on Tuesday, July 6, 2021, where residents and business owners were preparing for the arrival of Tropical Storm Elsa. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
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Frank Barakat carries his daughter Valentina, 2, through an shopping aisle dedicated for hurricane supplies as the Home Depot store prepares for possible effects of tropical storm Elsa in Miami on Saturday, July 3, 2021. Elsa fell back to tropical storm force as it brushed past Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Saturday and threatened to unleash flooding and landslides before taking aim at Cuba and Florida. (Al Diaz/Miami Herald via AP)
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Shawn Frazier, 61, reinforces tarps over his Tampa home's roof ahead of Tropical Storm Elsa on Tuesday, July 6, 2021. Frazier said there was some leaking he caught during a recent rainy day. (Ivy Ceballo/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
Shawn Frazier, 61, reinforces tarps over his Tampa home's roof ahead of Tropical Storm Elsa on Tuesday, July 6, 2021. Frazier said there was some leaking he caught during a recent rainy day. (Ivy Ceballo/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
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Looking north at the neighborhood of Paradise Island on Treasure Island, Fla., outer bands of Tropical Storm Elsa brings a downpour of rain over the area on Tuesday afternoon, July 6, 2021. Elsa is expected to impact the Tampa Bay area the heaviest during the predawn hours of Wednesday morning. (Marc Topkin/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
Looking north at the neighborhood of Paradise Island on Treasure Island, Fla., outer bands of Tropical Storm Elsa brings a downpour of rain over the area on Tuesday afternoon, July 6, 2021. Elsa is expected to impact the Tampa Bay area the heaviest during the predawn hours of Wednesday morning. (Marc Topkin/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
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A jogger makes his way along Bayshore Blvd., in Tampa, Fla. as a wave breaks over a seawall, during the aftermath of Tropical Storm Elsa Wednesday, July 7, 2021. The Tampa Bay area was spared major damage as Elsa stayed off shore as it passed by. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
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STEINHATCHEE, FLORIDA - JULY 06: Heavy rain falls on an almost empty Steinhatchee River in advance of the arrival of Tropical Storm Elsa on July 6, 2021 in Steinhatchee, Florida. The fishing and scalloping community of Steinhatchee has emptied after a busy tourism weekend. (Photo by Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images)
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This GOES-16 GeoColor satellite image taken Tuesday, July 6, 2021, at 5:50 p.m. EDT, and provided by NOAA, shows Tropical Storm Elsa in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida. The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Elsa is strengthening and could became a hurricane before making landfall along Florida's north Gulf coast. In addition to damaging winds and heavy rains, the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center warned of life-threatening storm surges, flooding and isolated tornadoes, (NOAA via AP)
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A red flag hangs from a lifeguard station just south of the collapsed Champlain Towers South condominium building where rescue crews continue to work, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. The search effort faced new threats from severe weather with Tropical Storm Elsa. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
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Search and rescue teams continue to work in the rubble at the site of the collapsed Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside, Florida, on July 6, 2021. - Rescuers on combed through the debris of a deadly condo tower collapse in Florida as Tropical Storm Elsa threatened to complicate the delicate search mission with strong winds and heavy rain. The death toll from the June 24 disaster in Surfside, a town north of Miami Beach, rose to 36 as search teams found four more bodies in the rubble, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said. (Photo by Eva Marie UZCATEGUI / AFP) (Photo by EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI/AFP via Getty Images)
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A photographer takes a photo with his cell phone of a rainbow that came out after of the passage of Tropical Storm Elsa, in Havana, Cuba, Monday, July 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A photographer takes a photo with his cell phone of a rainbow that came out after of the passage of Tropical Storm Elsa, in Havana, Cuba, Monday, July 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
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A woman walks amid boats secured to land ahead of the passage of Tropical Storm Elsa in Havana, on July 5, 2021. (Photo by YAMIL LAGE / AFP) (Photo by YAMIL LAGE/AFP via Getty Images)
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Wind moves the grass and palm trees under a cloudy sky after the passage of Tropical Storm Elsa in Havana, Cuba, Monday, July 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Wind moves the grass and palm trees under a cloudy sky after the passage of Tropical Storm Elsa in Havana, Cuba, Monday, July 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Anna Gawel
Anna Gawel joined WTOP in 2020 and works in both the radio and digital departments. Anna Gawel has spent much of her career as the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, which has been the flagship publication of D.C.’s diplomatic community for over 25 years.
