Hurricane Sandy Brings More Rain and Wind Today

As expected, Hurricane Sandy has left a big honking mess of things with wind and rain and rain and SO. MUCH. RAIN.

Fortunately, there have been no widespread power outages or any serious emergencies caused by the storm

Today's 8 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center says that she has weakened to a category 1 hurricane, and is moving at about 10 mph past Grand Abaco less that 200 miles from the South Florida Coast.

Palm Beach County saw sustained winds of up to 20-plus mph, with some sustained winds at 39 to 40 mph. In Fort Lauderdale, surge spilled sea water over the beach, blocking a stretch of A1A near Sunrise Boulevard.

We should also expect more heavy rains and winds throughout the day.

See also:
- Hurricane Sandy: What's Closed, Canceled, Re-Scheduled and Operating in Broward-Palm Beach

For all the wind and rain Sandy''s been dumping on us here, it's been vastly worse for the Caribbean. Cuba, the Bahamas and Haiti were slammed by Sandy when she ripped through those island nations as a category 2 storm in the last couple of days.

Sandy's torrential rain brought upon flooding, devastation and mudslides. The death toll is up to 21, with nine dead in Haiti, one reported death in Jamaica, and eleven deaths in Cuba.

The storm is expected to move up towards the Mid-Atlantic states early next week, where it will could merge meet frigid air from Canada. Forecasters say this could lead to a large, messy storm that could bring up to 70 mph winds, extreme flooding, freezing rain and, some say, maybe even snow along much of the East Coast.

We down here in SoFla can expect the storm to dissipate later today, and forecasters say the weekend is expected to be cooler than usual.