The storm is now idling in the Gulf of Mexico, but it won’t sit still for long.
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The system is expected to move out of the region by Monday.
That heavy rainfall is one of the things that the intensifying depression is expected to bring to Florida over the next several days in addition to storm surge, tropical-storm-force or even hurricane-force winds, and isolated tornadoes.
The Miami-based center says a hurricane hunter plane has determined that a tropical depression strengthened Wednesday into the named storm and Hermine now boasts top sustained winds of 40 miles per hour (65 kph).
WALB’s First Alert Weather Team declared Thursday to be a First Alert Weather Day due to the Tropical Storm.
The National Hurricane Center said that the depression is expected to produce additional rain accumulations of 2 to 4 inches over western Cuba through today, with maximum storm total amounts up to 20 inches.
Tropical Depression Nine was upgraded to Tropical Storm Hermine Wednesday afternoon.
The latest track has Hermine continuing toward the north with a turn to the northeast expected Thursday.
The tracking forecast of the storm system shows that after making landfall and passing through Florida, the storm could pass through affect Georgia and the Carolinas as it would be near the East Coast.
This is in addition to the 42 counties announced earlier today.
The last hurricane to strike Florida was Wilma, a powerful Category 3 storm that arrived on Oct 24, 2005. “6-10” of rain is likely there, along with damaging wind and flood concerns. He will take part in another briefing at the state Emergency Operations Center Wednesday night.
Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum said Friday that power outages were “pretty ubiquitous” in Florida’s capital city.
Officials urged residents and businesses along the coast to rapidly make preparations, from boarding up windows to sandbagging areas around their homes and buildings. The area is about 60 miles southeast of St. Marks, where Hermine made landfall at 1:30 a.m.in the Big Bend area, where Florida’s peninsula and panhandle meet.
“As you’ve seen with prior storms there are going to be bands of significant rain”, he said, adding Florida residents should be ready in the event of heavy rain, water and downed power lines.
Thursday should start off breezy, getting noticeably windier in the afternoon. The governors of Georgia and North Carolina also declared emergencies.
Forecasters earlier had anxious the area could get up to 5 inches of rain as the storm passed near the coast.
This year, government forecasters predicted a near-normal season with 10 to 16 tropical storms, of which four to eight would be hurricanes.
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