A hurricane warning was in effect for the Florida panhandle from the Suwannee River to Mexico Beach as the strengthening storm was expected to sweep across northern parts of the state and then northeast along the Atlantic Coast, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.
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Tropical storm warnings are posted from the Florida-Georgia border all the way up to nearly New Jersey, with watches in effect northward to Rhode Island.
It’s also possible Hermine will gain strength once it reaches the warm water in the Atlantic, and even if it doesn’t attain hurricane status again, it will still be a very risky system.
As Hermine moved north, Georgia Power estimated about 19,000 homes and businesses were without power statewide early Friday. “I don’t think this is a situation where anyone would want to go to the Shore”.
“I see airplanes arriving and taking off”, she said.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe also declared a state of emergency, warning that the storm could bring “life-threatening” storm surges to popular destinations such as Virginia Beach.
Storm surges may have reached as high as 11 feet in some areas overnight. John Mayes, 56, was sleeping in a tent behind a gas station in Ocala, about 65 miles northwest of Orlando, when a tree fell onto him Thursday night, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said.
A small tornado spawned by Hermine knocked over two trailers and injured four people on the North Carolina Outer Banks. Bands of heavy rain are crossing the state ahead of the storm which is now centered over SC. New Jersey officials ordered swimmers out of the surf.
The New York State Emergency Operations center will be activated on Sunday.
Hermine is expected to produce storm total rainfall accumulations of 5 to 10 inches – with possible isolated maximum amounts of 15 inches – over the southeastern USA and portions of the mid-Atlantic.
For the coastal counties, chances of precipitation during the day start at 30 percent Saturday, rise to 50 percent Sunday and fall to 40 percent on Labor Day. In Savannah, Georgia, Bacon Fest was canceled Friday and the Craft Brew Fest had to move beer tents indoors.
At Dekle Beach, a storm surge damaged numerous homes and destroyed storage buildings and a 100-yard fishing pier.
The latest forecast Friday morning had Hermine’s maximum sustained winds at about 50 miles per hour as it approached Florida’s upper Gulf Coast.
In front of a large media audience, Scott asked residents to stay away from down power lines, flooded and standing water.
In nearby Steinhatchee, a storm surge crashed into Bobbi Pattison’s home. Tiny crabs darted around her floor.
“I know who this baseball bat belongs to”, she said plucking it from a pile of debris. Where her bar once stood now was only wet sand and rubble.
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The last hurricane to make landfall in the United States was Hurricane Arthur in 2014, a Category 2 storm that came ashore in North Carolina.
