The Tallahassee Democrat (http://on.tdo.com/2c2jFxe) reports emergency management officials in Franklin County have issued a mandatory evacuation notice for people living on St. George Island, Dog Island, Alligator Point and Bald Point.
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Sept 1 Intensifying winds from Hurricane Hermine lashed Florida’s northern Gulf Coast late on Thursday, as residents stocked up on provisions and some fled to higher ground ahead of what the state’s governor warned would be a potentially lethal storm.
Tropical Storm Hermine is getting a little bit weaker as it heads away from the First Coast.
Projected storm surges of up to 12ft threatened a wide stretch of the coast and an expected drenching of up to 10in 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.
As of 5 a.m. EDT Friday, Hermine was weakening as it moved into southern Georgia, the Hurricane Center said.
“The center should then move near or over eastern SC on Friday night and near or over eastern North Carolina on Saturday”, it said.
Hermine is expected to drop back down to a tropical storm before pushing into Georgia, the Carolinas and up the East Coast with the potential for drenching rain and deadly flooding. Homes were flooded there and in Sarasota where fire crews used boats to rescue residents and pets.
“This is life-threatening”, Scott told reporters on Thursday afternoon. His agency responded to more than 300 calls overnight. Mayor Andrew Gillum estimated as many as 100,000 residents were without electricity Friday morning. Flooding was expected across a wide area of the marshy coastline of the Big Bend – the mostly rural and lightly populated corner where the Florida peninsula meets the Panhandle. Police blocked the road because of flooding. Taylor County Commissioner Jody DeVane said several homes were damaged.
Dustin Beach, 31, had rushed there early Friday from a hospital in Tallahassee where his wife had given birth Thursday night to a girl to see if his home still stood. “I’ve been in this area for 30 years but I’ve never seen it like this”, Chason said.
Cindy Simpson was waiting near her vehicle, hoping her beach home and boats had made it. “It’s a home on stilts so I put everything upstairs”.
“We associate severe rain events like tropical events and hurricanes with increases in nuisance mosquitoes, not disease-spreading (mosquitoes)”, said Ben Beard of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They were taken to a nearby shelter. “The storm surge, by itself, is life-threatening”.
Rains of 4 to 10 inches were possible along the coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas by Sunday.
Scott declared an emergency in 51 counties.
As the system pushed into Georgia, it knocked down many power lines in both states. Many of those were in Valdosta and surrounding Lowndes County, about 15 miles north of the Georgia-Florida border. Winds exceeding 55 miles per hour had been recorded in the county, with 4 to 5 inches of rainfall, she said.
“For the first time in over a decade, Florida is facing a hurricane”. It swept across the Everglades and struck heavily populated south Florida, causing five deaths in the state and an estimated $US23 billion ($A30 billion) in damage.
Rick Scott warned of the dangers Thursday of strong storm surge, high winds, downed trees and power outages, and had urged people during the day to move to inland shelters if necessary and make sure they had enough food, water and medicine to get them through the next couple of days.
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Georgia Governor Nathan Deal on Thursday signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency for 56 counties that runs through midnight on Saturday.
