Hurricane Nicole: Power outages as rare November storm hits Florida

More than 300,000 homes and businesses in Florida have been left without power as storm Nicole batters the US state.

States of emergency and evacuation orders are in place, and residents have been told to stay indoors with heavy rain and storm surges forecast.

Two people were killed when they were electrocuted by a downed power line in Orange County in the centre of the state.

Storms of this size so late in the year are extremely rare.

The storm has already lashed the Bahamas as a huge category one hurricane, and caused widespread flooding.

Nicole hit Florida's eastern coast as a hurricane at 03:00 EST (08:00 GMT) with winds of up to 75mph (120km/h). These have weakened slightly to around 60mph and Nicole has been downgraded to a tropical storm as it makes its way north-west across the sunshine state.

Since the storm hit in the early hours, more than 600,000 homes and businesses have lost power. Electricity has been restored to around half of these but 308,000 remain without, according to service providers.

The storm is expected to weaken further as it heads north towards Georgia and the Carolinas, over the next two days.

Its remnants could possibly even hit Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York later in the week.

Most of Florida's 22 million residents remained under a tropical storm, high wind and storm surge warnings along with local hurricane statements that urged people to stay indoors and watch for flooding.

Florida residents have been warned to expect flooding caused by heavy rain and storm surges

Florida residents living close to the coast have been warned of storm surges

Forty-five of the state's 67 counties are under a state of emergency and four counties are under mandatory evacuation orders.

The NHC has warned of flooding caused by wind-driven waves washing inland into low-lying areas, and said strong winds were likely to blow down trees and power lines. Footage on social media showed this was already under way.

Fifteen emergency shelters have been opened, 20 school districts have shut their establishments and 1,600 utility workers are on standby to restore power.

As storm Nicole moves north-west across Florida it is leaving damage in its wake

Ahead of Nicole's arrival, Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort closed early on Wednesday, and Orlando International Airport has grounded commercial flights.

The arrival of Nicole is also expected to further disrupt a long-delayed Nasa rocket launch, which aims to bring Americans one-step closer to returning to the Moon.

The Artemis 1 mission had already been pushed back to 19 November but there are fears that flying debris caused by the storm could damage the exposed rocket.

Nicole's late arrival follows a relatively quiet storm season - for the first time since 1997 not a single hurricane or tropical storm formed in the Atlantic basin this August.

November hurricanes are rare in Florida. Since record-keeping began in 1853, the sunshine state has been hit by only two: in 1935 and 1985.

Nicole comes just weeks after Hurricane Ian hit Florida, leaving more than 140 people dead and caused $60bn (£51bn) worth of damage.