Storm preparations were also under way on Hawaii’s Big Island, where residents were warned of an approaching hurricane. If Hermine makes landfall as a category one hurricane, as expected, it will be the first in Florida in 11 years, since Hurricane Wilma struck the sunshine state in 2005. We should start to see showers as early as Friday morning and they will pick up during the day.
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‘The combination of a risky storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline, ‘ the NHC said, warning that the storm was due to reach Florida’s northwestern coastline by late Thursday.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a State of Emergency to help 42 counties prepare, including Franklin County, which was under a mandatory evacuation notice.
As of 5 a.m. EDT Thursday, Hermine is centered about 275 miles (440 kilometers) west-southwest of Tampa, Florida, and is moving north-northeast near 12 mph (19 kph). On the East Coast, a tropical storm warning has been issued for an area that extends from Marineland, Florida, northward to the South Santee River in SC. Tropical Storm winds are classified as 39 miles per hour or greater. This hurricane is much stronger, winds are 140mph as of late Wednesday.
As the projected path jogged west, forecasters extended a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning to Destin, in Florida’s Panhandle, and on to the Anclote River north of Tampa. Catfish came onto her driveway as the street flooded in Gulfport, a small waterfront city.
“Craziest thing I ever saw”, Darrin Palumbo told the station. So if we are in school and we do have that happen, of course our teachers are super great with our kids.
Locals tell us they are anxious about additional flooding.
“It’s going to be 10 times worse”, she said.
Residents have been sharing images of high water running through neighborhoods.
Two Florida counties are taking no chances with its oceanside locales. GPM’s Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) instruments saw heavy rainfall in strong convective storms in the Gulf of Mexico northwest of Cuba.
The center of the storm will move through SC during the day on Friday.
The Hawaiian islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Kahoolawe were under a tropical storm watch, but there were no alerts for Oahu or Kauai.
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Lafourche Parish Homeland Security Director Josh Champagne was on a conference call with the National Weather Service this afternoon just after the Tropical Depression 9 grew into Tropical Storm Hermine. Several boat ramps, and more than a dozen other county parks and beaches, as well as the county landfill, closed at 3:30 p.m. and will remain closed until the storm passes.
