A hurricane warning was in effect for northern Florida and authorities warned of potential strong winds and storm surges that could cause flooding.
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Florida Governor Rick Scott warns people in his state to take Hermine seriously.
Floridians have been watching Hermine closely for over a week, when the storm first developed into a tropical disturbance, then a depression, then into a storm.
On Friday night, it will still be a tropical storm and bring gusty winds, flooding rain and isolated tornadoes to east SC.
Governor Scott said that 8,000 members of the Florida National Guard were prepared to be deployed in the wake of the storm.
Hermine, which earlier this week had been expected to make landfall as far south as Cedar Key, just 85 miles northwest of Leesburg, instead trekked north overnight.
A mandatory evacuation notice is in place for Franklin County along the Florida Panhandle, and several schools have announced preemptive closures Thursday and Friday.
The heaviest rain will move into northeast North Carolina and the Southside by Midnight.
“This is a life-threatening situation”, he said.
The image shows a much more organized Hermine with bands of thunderstorms wrapping around its low-level center and blanketing the entire state of Florida.
The area could get between six and 10 inches of rain, with 20 inches possible in isolated areas north of Interstate 4.
Residents on some islands and other low-lying, flood-prone areas in Florida were urged to clear out.
The center also expanded a tropical storm watch from Georgia into SC.
Flooding is expected across a wide swath of the Big Bend area, which has a mostly marshy coastline. The city, roughly 35 miles from the coast, has not had a direct hit by hurricane in 30 years.
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The last hurricane to strike Florida was Wilma, a powerful Category 3 storm that arrived on October 24, 2005. A few downed trees and scattered power outages are likely with these types of wind speeds especially near the coast.
