Barry blows into Alabama

Waist-deep water floods streets in Stuart, Florida on Thursday

DESTIN, Florida (CNN) -- Tropical Storm Barry roared through the Florida Panhandle on Monday and into Alabama, bringing rain that could total up to 8 inches in the panhandle, Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia, according to the National Weather Service's 8 a.m. EDT advisory.

The Weather Service advisory said Barry was located 55 miles south of Selma, Alabama. The storm was traveling to the north-northwest at a slightly faster pace of 13 mph. It was centered at 31.6 degrees north latitude and 86.9 degrees west longitude with winds at 40 mph.

Isolated tornadoes from the storm are also possible Monday in portions of northern Florida, including the panhandle, southern Georgia and southern Alabama, the advisory said.

"It's barely a tropical storm and we will likely downgrade that -- in fact I'm sure we'll downgrade that -- to a tropical depression within a couple of hours," Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center told CNN on Monday during the 9 a.m. EDT hour.

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Damage information was just starting to come into the Florida Emergency Management office Monday morning. "We're cautiously hopeful," said emergency management spokesman Jim Loftus. "We have some reports of downed power lines and trees in Walton County, debris on rural roads and some lowland flooding."

As for the rest of the Florida Panhandle, "We'll know better as the day goes on," Loftus said. "These are rural counties; we're waiting for the reports to come in from the county emergency centers."

All hurricane warnings associated with Barry have been discontinued. A tropical storm warning was discontinued from Fort Walton Beach, Florida, eastward to Apalachicola, Florida.

Tropical Storm Barry

The storm roared ashore in the western Florida Panhandle early Monday morning east of Destin, Florida, with 70 mph winds and a tidal surge of 4 to 5 feet and rainfall, the Weather Service said.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told CNN about 34,000 customers are without power as a result of the storm.

"We'll have assessment teams go out and assess the cost of public sector support and loss of property to the private sector, and then we go to Washington, if appropriate, and get more support," Bush told CNN on Monday. "It's a good system that we have in place to deal with disasters."

Bay County officials opened two shelters in Panama City, Florida, where a tornado watch was issued ahead of the storm. About 50 people stayed in shelters overnight.