He said an unknown number were taken to area hospitals with injuries that weren’t thought to be life-threatening.
Advertisement
Wakulla County Administrator Dustin Hinkel said Friday that the couple was driving during the storm and drove into a tree that had fallen into the road.
Hermine officially became a hurricane Thursday afternoon and had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph when it made landfall near St. Marks, located about 20 miles south of Tallahassee, around 1:30 a.m. ET Friday morning according to the National Hurricane Center.
“It is a mess, we have high water in numerous places”.
The City of Tallahassee reported that at least 35,000 city utility customers were without power, and trees were down.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the storm’s maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 70 miles per hour around 5 a.m. with additional weakening forecast.
All of Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia is under a tornado watch as Hurricane Hermine made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast early Friday morning.
Wind gusts reached 80mph on Thursday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Projected storm surges of up to 12ft (3.7m) threatened a wide swathe of the coast and an expected drenching of up to 10in (25.4cm) of rain carried the danger of flooding along the storm’s path over land, including the state capital, Tallahassee, which had not been hit by a hurricane since Kate in 1985.
Weather officials predict Hermine will also hit Georgia and the Carolinas, and could bring heavy rains along the East Coast in the coming days. They were taken to a nearby shelter. It swept across the Everglades and struck heavily populated south Florida, causing five deaths in the state and an estimated $23 billion in damage.
Hermine was the first hurricane to hit Florida in more than a decade when it came ashore early Friday. He said storm surge of 8 to 10 feet damaged docks and flooded coastal roads.
U.S. 98 in Eastpoint, Florida, as Hurricane Hermine approaches.
In coastal Franklin County, people were evacuated from barrier islands and low-lying shore areas.
Gov. Rick Scott earlier urged residents along a stretch of the coast centered on the so-called Big Bend – the elbow where the state’s peninsula meets the Panhandle – to secure food and water. News stories displayed here appear in our category for US Headlines and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.com and The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news organization.
Georgia has declared a state of emergency in 56 counties, and North Carolina in 33 counties.
Advertisement
“On Friday and Saturday, Hermine is expected to produce totals of 4 to 8 inches with local amounts of 10 inches possible across portions of eastern Georgia, South Carolina, and eastern North Carolina through Saturday”.
