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Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort is in a zone that officials have urged people to evacuate, as Tropical Storm Nicole is expected to soon make landfall on Florida's east coast as a Category 1 hurricane.
The former president was seen voting in Florida on Tuesday and later held an election night watch party—where he saw a number of his picks lose their races—at his Palm Beach residence.
Mar-a-Lago is located within the National Hurricane Center's forecast "cone of uncertainty." According to the NHC, the center of the storm will remain within the cone about 60 to 70 percent of the time.
But the center has warned that Nicole is expected to "be a large storm, with hazards extending well to the north of the center, outside of the forecast cone."
With forecasters predicting Nicole will hit Florida at hurricane strength on Wednesday night, residents of at least three counties were ordered to evacuate from barrier islands, low-lying areas and mobile homes.
Palm Beach County officials said mandatory evacuations for zones A and B would begin at 7 a.m. on Wednesday. Mar-a-Lago is located in evacuation zone B.
Palm Beach town manager Kirk Blouin said police would not be knocking on doors to convince people to leave their homes.
"We're not going to force evacuations," he said, according to the Palm Beach Daily News. "In my opinion, the order is a knee-jerk reaction to what happened on the west coast with Hurricane Ian. There was criticism over there that they didn't issue the evacuation orders early enough. We'll notify the public that Palm Beach County issued evacuation orders."
It was not immediately clear what Trump's plans for the storm were. Newsweek reached out to Trump for comment.
It comes after an Accuweather forecaster earlier told Newsweek they weren't expecting Nicole to directly hit Mar-a-Lago, but that "at least some wind and rain from the storm for the location" was expected.
In preparation, many Florida school districts have canceled classes for Wednesday and Thursday.
Palm Beach International Airport, located just a few miles east of Mar-a-Lago, said it planned to cease commercial operations on Wednesday morning.
Officials at Orlando International Airport have said commercial operations would stop at 4 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon until it was safe to resume flights.
The announcements come after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday declared a state of emergency for 34 counties in the potential path of the storm.
Many of those areas are still reeling from the devastation caused by Hurricane Ian, which hit Florida's southwestern coast as a Category 4 storm on September 28.
About the writer
Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's National Correspondent based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on education and national news. Khaleda ... Read more