A news reporter doing a stand up near a sea wall in Cedar Key, Florida, is covered by an unexpected wave as Hurricane Hermine nears the Florida coast on Thursday.
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According to an advisory released by the US National Hurricane Centre, Hermine was expected to reach Florida’s Gulf Coast early Friday.
The warning area along Florida’s Atlantic coast will start experiencing tropical-storm conditions Friday, with those conditions spreading northward through the weekend, forecasters said.
Hermine was upgraded from a tropical storm to a category 1 hurricane earlier Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said.
Hermine is moving toward the north-northeast, and this motion with a slight increase in forward speed is expected during the next day or so.
The storm will weaken back into a tropical storm as it quickly pushes up the southeast United States through eastern Georgia and SC. A hurricane warning is in effect for the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast.
In Carrabelle, on the coast just 60 miles (97km) south-west of Tallahassee, Courtney Chason was keeping an eye on the storm surge as docks and boat houses were slowly being battered as the storm approached late on Thursday.
Heavy rains and storm surge could bring life-threatening flooding to parts of Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Georgia’s governor also declared a state of emergency for 56 counties through Saturday, in anticipation of the storm.
Governor Scott reminded residents that it has been 11 years since a hurricane has made landfall in Florida, adding that so many people have moved to the state since that time, plus the state is playing host to many visitors.
Workers in Valdosta and surrounding Lowndes County spent much of Thursday clearing storm drains and roadside ditches in hopes of alleviating flooding from an anticipated 7 to 9 inches of rain. With maximum winds of 80 miles per hour, the weakening Gaston is expected to affect the Azores by Friday as a tropical storm.
For up-to-the minute information regarding Hurricane Hermine, keep track of NWS alerts pertaining to the Historic Triangle.
After battering coastal Florida, Hermine was expected to weaken and move across the northern part of the state into Georgia, then southern USA coastal regions on the Atlantic, posing a Labor Day weekend threat for tens of millions of people. Rainbands spreading inland will be capable of producing isolated tornadoes late Friday afternoon and evening. “We got a bunch of work after the storm (from 2005) but we slowed way down”, he said.
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“Storm (surge) is what got me anxious right now”, Smith said. Despite the bravado, he said, “I’m anxious”. Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for 51 counties as residents braced for the unsafe storm. the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said wind gusts reached 110 kmph yesterday.
