November 16, 2022
Hurricane Nicole Incident Report Summary
Storm History:
On November 4, 2022, the National Hurricane
Center (NHC) began tracking a tropical wave
that would eventually become Hurricane Nicole
as it moved northwards out of the Caribbean Sea
and over Puerto Rico. On November 7, 2022,
Subtropical Storm Nicole was officially classified
by the NHC, and within 24 hours had taken on
fully tropical characteristics; allowing for a
reclassification to Tropical Storm Nicole. The
storm gradually moved westward towards the
Bahamas, intensifying as it did. On November 9,
2022, the storm became a category 1 hurricane
as it neared the Florida Peninsula. It made
landfall around 3:00 am EST on November 10,
2022 just south of Vero Beach, Florida with
maximum sustained winds of 75 mph and a central pressure of 981 millibars.
The storm moved generally from southeast to northwest, weakening back to a tropical storm as it passed
directly over Central Florida. After exiting the state and moving into Georgia as a tropical depression, Nicole
moved northeastward towards West Virginia. The storm officially dissipated over New England on
November 12.
City of Cape Canaveral (City) Preparedness Activities:
With each passing storm, City staff actively evaluate and consider opportunities to improve preparedness
and mitigation activities. “Lessoned learned” from each storm system are implemented as appropriate and
feasible. Staff began monitoring what would eventually become Hurricane Nicole on Friday, November 4.
Preliminary storm preparedness activities began the same day; with formal activation of the City’s
Emergency Operations Team on Monday, November 7 alongside Brevard County’s Emergency Operations
Center (EOC). Active public messaging encouraging residents and businesses to be prepared for the storm
began on Sunday, November 6. Near continuous public messaging began after this date via the City’s social
media channels, email alerts, and Everbridge phone and text messaging.
Figure 1. Track of Hurricane Nicole.
Page 2
Other notable preparedness activities included:
• Staff participated in daily Brevard County EOC conference call meetings between Monday,
November 7 and Friday, November 11 to help coordinate local preparedness efforts with other local
agencies and governments.
• Over 600 sandbags were made by Public Works Services and Parks, Recreation, and Community
Affairs Department staff members and distributed to residents at Manatee Sanctuary Park.
• All diesel backup emergency generators were topped off with fuel and double checked Tuesday,
November 8; including at all critical facilities such as the Brevard County Sheriff Office Building, City
Hall, and the Water Reclamation Facility (WRF). There are a total of seven additional lift station
backup generators located throughout the City.
• Infrastructure Maintenance staff members checked and cleaned stormwater inlet grates on
Monday, November 7 and Tuesday, November 8.
• A local state of emergency was unanimously adopted by Council on Tuesday, November 8 at an
emergency City Council meeting.
• In anticipation of severe beach erosion, staff began regularly monitoring beach conditions and dune
stability by documenting storm surge-related inundation between Monday, November 7 and
Monday, November 14.
• Lift stations were checked around the clock by the City’s Collections Manager before, during, and
after the storm event. The WRF’s SCADA System is capable of alerting staff members if any particular
lift station develops a problem such as a pump going down or if high well levels are detected;
allowing for an immediate response if necessary.
• All City offices were closed Wednesday, November 9 and Thursday, November 10 due to the storm.
Additionally, all offices were closed on Friday, November 11 in observance of Veterans Day. The
City of Cape Canaveral Community Center (C5) was reopened for public use on Saturday, November
12 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. All remaining City offices were reopened to the public on Monday,
November 14.
• The temporary pump stationed at Center Street Park was never needed, and instead was
repositioned post-storm to Lift Station #5, which had lost power.
• City staff installed temporary barricades with signage stating “ROADWAY FLOODED, NO WAKE“ at
highly flood prone locations; including:
o Orange and Lincoln Avenue
o 300 Block of Fillmore Avenue
o Polk and Poinsettia Avenue
o Tyler and Poinsettia Avenue
o Fillmore Avenue east of Ridgewood Avenue
Impacts and Post-Storm Staff Activities:
Hurricane Nicole brought periods of intense rain and wind throughout Brevard County. It was the first
hurricane to make landfall on Florida’s east coast since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The City’s network of
remote sensor sites all recorded data flawlessly throughout the event. Staff also utilized the Trident Pier tide
gauge at Port Canaveral – which is maintained by the National Weather Service (NWS) – to monitor storm
surge conditions during the course of the event. Finalized weather stats recorded by the City’s two weather
stations for Hurricane Nicole include the following:
City Hall Weather Station:
Page 3
• Total rainfall observed between 12:00 am, Wednesday, November 9 – 12:00 am, Friday, November
11: 2.47 inches
• Highest 15-minute high rain rate observed: 6.62 inches per hour
• Highest 15-minute rainfall recorded: 0.25 inches, 4:00 am – 4:15 am, Thursday, November 10 and
0.25 inches, 4:30 am – 4:45 am, Thursday November 10
• Highest wind gust observed: 66 mph
• Highest average wind speed observed within a 15-minute recording period: 37 mph
• Minimum central pressure observed: 29.16 inHg or 987 millibars
Water Reclamation Facility Weather Station:
• Total rainfall observed between 12:00 am, Wednesday, November 9 – 12:00 am, Friday, November
11: 2.35 inches
• Highest 15-minute high rain rate observed: 3.35 inches per hour
• Highest 15-minute rainfall recorded: 0.15 inches, 3:00 am – 3:15 am, Thursday, November 10
• Highest wind gust observed: 49 mph
• Highest average wind speed observed within a 15-minute recording period: 25 mph
• Minimum central pressure observed: 29.20 inHg or 988 millibars
Once wind speeds had slowed enough to
allow for safe travel throughout the City
late in the morning on Thursday,
November 10, preliminary damage
assessments were conducted by teams
from Canaveral Fire Rescue, the Brevard
County Sheriff Office, and City staff from
the Public Works Services Department,
Community and Economic Development
Department (including the Building
Official), and the City’s Incident Command
team. Assessments of both City facilities
and the community at large were completed by 5:00 pm, November 10. Structural damage assessment
information was forwarded to the Brevard County EOC within 96 hours of the storm’s passage.
The City experienced minimal levels of damage and disruption due to the passage of Hurricane Nicole;
although impacts were more widely felt than what occurred in the wake of Hurricane Ian six weeks earlier.
Primary threats that were predicted by the NHC, NWS, and Brevard County EOC were high winds and storm
surge. Rainfall amounts were never considered to be a large threat for this event. The highest recorded
ground level wind speed observed in Brevard County per the NWS was in a gust in Port St. John at 75 mph
at 5:38 am, Thursday, November 10. Higher wind gusts in the 80 mph to 100 mph range were recorded at
the Kennedy Space Center, but these readings were taken several hundred feet in the air atop launch and
lightning protection towers. Large amounts of loose leaf and branch debris fell across the community, along
with several large trees. Only minimal superficial damage was reported at any City facility or building.
Public Works Services Department staff helped secure the WRF and its operations before moving out into
the community to begin the process of removing debris and clearing storm drain inlets. All storm drain
inlets found to be covered by debris were cleared by 6:00 pm, Thursday, November 10.
Figure 2. Branch from a large oak tree fallen into the Rover’s Space Dog Park.
Page 4
Much of the community lost power during the storm; including City Hall, the WRF, several lift stations, and
most traffic lights. No sewage spills were reported as a result of this outage at the WRF or at any lift stations.
All of the City’s backup emergency diesel generators performed without incident while active during and
after the event. The Nancy Hanson Recreational Complex and the C5 are not known to have lost grid power.
The C5’s rooftop solar array experienced no damage and continued generating power for the grid through
the duration of the storm during daylight hours. At peak, over 80,000 customers across Brevard County
were without power. Power was restored to most City facilities within 24 hours, and to the rest of the City
within about 48 hours. As of this writing, the Canaveral City Park Little League Field is still without power.
City Hall landlines were restored on the morning of Monday, November 14.
As predicted by the NHC, a storm surge of three to five feet materialized beachside as a result of a persistent
onshore wind out of the northeast. Several high tide cycles, including a king tide, also served to increase
water levels across the beach, leading to significant erosion. Wave action was observed overtopping the
eastern most duneline and making its way up to and under City crossovers at high tide. However, due to its
width and extensive vegetation, no seawater was observed breaching the overall duneline and impacting
properties behind it. Much of the vegetation on the eastern most face of the dunes, and within the small
“dunelets” that were naturally forming on the flat beach itself, were destroyed or buried. At Trident Pier in
Port Canaveral, a peak storm surge height of nearly six feet was recorded, but fortunately this came close
to a low tide cycle. Surge was recorded at around 2.5 feet at the largest high tide cycle during the storm,
with this preliminary reading only being about six inches lower than the highest reading observed during
Hurricane Irma in 2017, which saw the highest water rise ever recorded at the Trident Pier gauge since it
became active in 1994.
The Banana River Lagoon did not experience a pronounced water rise. Water levels in the lagoon were
actually observed to have dropped due to the prevailing northeasterly winds pushing water away from the
City’s western shoreline. No erosion was observed lagoon-side as a result.
Nicole – a rare but not impossible November hurricane – will most likely be remembered for its extensive
storm surge-related damages and beach erosion along much of Florida’s east coast. Many coastal
properties fully or partially collapsed into the ocean due to this extensive erosion, and this will realistically
Figure 3. City Hall weather station information showcasing rainfall, pressure, and wind data throughout Nicole’s passage.
Page 5
bring Hurricane Nicole’s total damage costs to over $1 billion. Major coastal reconstruction and beach
renourishment will be needed to repair damages, including in Brevard County especially in areas south of
Patrick Space Force Base. These erosion effects were likely compounded by sea level rise over the past 100
years or so, greatly amplifying the impacts of a minimal category 1 hurricane.
Lessons Learned:
Five lessons should be taken from this incident.
1. Never take a storm event for granted. Every tropical cyclone can present its own unique challenges.
No matter their strength and duration, none should be taken for granted and each should be
prepared for in expectation of the worst.
2. Instill a culture of continuous preparedness and an efficient, confidently capable, and dedicated
staff will result. For years the City has been investing in storm-related training, practices, and
procedures that continue to help improve response times to incoming storms. The vast majority of
preparedness activities for this event were completed within as little as 48-hours.
3. Enhanced resilience measures must continue and increase. Hurricane Nicole was the latest in a
series US landfalling storms over the past several years that have brought significant and long
lasting damage to coastal regions. Such events are being made more extreme and impactful by the
ongoing influences of climate change. The storm will undoubtedly spark conversations pertaining
to how close coastal construction should be to the ocean, the raising of buildings, managed retreat,
and the Coastal Construction Control Line (CCCL).
4. Annual dune plantings must continue. It was feared the predicted impacts of Hurricane Nicole
would destroy the City’s beach and dune system; however, this did not happen. As an example of
excellent long-term resilience planning, years of dedicated volunteer planting events (and the
installation of sand fences) beginning in the 2000s led to the creation of a well-established and
highly vegetated dune system. Over time, these plants (mainly sea oats) helped to trap windborne
sand and deposit it at their bases, building the dunes higher over time. Below ground, their complex
and deep root systems help to stabilize the dunes as rebar would in a concrete building. These
plants are not a silver bullet for coastal protection, but they are a vital – and relatively inexpensive
– first line of defense among a larger toolkit of resilience measures.
5. Beach renourishment programs must also continue. Consistent beach renourishment is another
important tool in coastal protection. Due to the Port Canaveral shipping channel, it is difficult for
the City’s beach to naturally renourish itself, making artificial renourishment by the US Army Corps
of Engineers a necessity every few years. The latest renourishment was completed in Spring 2019.
Renourishment allows for an expansion of the beach’s overall width, providing a larger buffer zone
for storm surge and wave action to lose energy over before impacting the duneline. It is imperative
that the high tide line be kept as far as possible from coastal structures, and beach renourishment
helps to provide this distance. Between 2019 and today, the latest renourishment has held up
incredibly well as evidenced by Figure 4 (below).
Page 6
Figure 4. Comparison of the City's beach from September 13, 2019 to November 14, 2022 at the Polk Avenue public crossover.
