<p>Hurricane Nicole slammed into Florida Thursday, battering a large area of the state that’s still recovering from the historic devastation of Hurricane Ian just six weeks ago — despite being downgraded to a tropical storm after making landfall.</p> <p>The rare November hurricane — which already led to a state of emergency being declared in Florida, with evacuations and 600 National Guards at the ready — made landfall just south of Vero Beach, the Miami-based&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/status/1590616340934856705" _mce_href="https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/status/1590616340934856705" target="_blank">National Hurricane Center said at 3 a.m</a>.</p> <p>It was downgraded an hour later, with the center warning that it was still wreaking havoc with “strong winds, dangerous storm surge and waves, and&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/status/1590629853115559936" _mce_href="https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/status/1590629853115559936" target="_blank">heavy rains</a>” across a large area of the already battered state.</p> <p>“A dangerous storm surge is expected” across much of the state as well as “portions of coastal Georgia,” the weather center warned in&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/status/1590640541003227137" _mce_href="https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/status/1590640541003227137">its latest&nbsp;</a><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/status/1590640541003227137" _mce_href="https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/status/1590640541003227137" target="_blank">update</a>&nbsp;at 4 a.m.</p> <p>“The storm surge will be accompanied by large and damaging waves along the Atlantic coast.”</p>