Alberto, now a depression, dumps heavy rains across US south

Alberto is a still-menacing depression after its Memorial Day landfall on the Gulf Coast, scattering heavy rains around the South and raising risks of flash floods.

As the first named storm of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season, Subtropical Storm Alberto lumbered ashore Monday afternoon in the Florida Panhandle and then weakened overnight to a depression centred over Alabama.

Now it’s a vast, soggy system dumping the warm water it gathered over the Gulf of Mexico in bursts of rain across the southeast.

Forecasters said that rain could still kill people caught in flash floods in the coming hours or days in Alabama and large areas of Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas.

In North Carolina, a television news anchor and a photojournalist were killed instantly on Monday while covering the weather, when a tree became uprooted from the rain-soaked ground and toppled onto their SUV, authorities said.

“Two journalists working to keep the public informed about this storm have tragically lost their lives, and we mourn with their families, friends, and colleagues,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said in a statement.

“North Carolina needs to take Alberto seriously. I urge everyone to keep a close eye on forecasts, warnings and road conditions, especially in western North Carolina where even heavier rain is predicted.”

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