Forecasters issue hurricane warning for portions of northwestern Florida
Forecasters have issued a hurricane warning for portions of northwestern Florida.
The National Hurricane Center on Wednesday night set the warning from the Suwanee River west to Mexico Beach as Tropical Storm Hermine was continuing to strengthen over the Gulf of Mexico.
Hermine was 315 miles west-southwest of Tampa with winds of 60 mph. It was expected to continue to strengthen through Thursday and be near the coast by the night.
The center also expanded a tropical storm watch from Georgia into South Carolina.
The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Hermine is expected to strengthen to a hurricane before landfall in Florida. The Miami-based center tweeted the most recent development Wednesday night.
Gusting winds were the first signs of Hermine’s arrival on Florida’s west coast Wednesday, CBS News’ Omar Villafranca reported.
In the coastal town of Gulfport, the storm’s first rain bands submerged neighborhood streets in almost a foot of water.
Debby Deade is already fighting ankle deep water in her mother’s home.
“The water has been really bad. We actually have a pump inside ready to go to flow out the water out here,” she said.
“Hopefully this will be the worst weather we get this year, but we are going to have storm surge,” Gov. Rick Scott told reporters on Tuesday. “We are going to have rain. We are going to have flooding, and we have the potential of tornadoes, and we’re going to have rip currents.”
Scott added nine more counties to a state of emergency declaration as Hermine approaches the Gulf Coast.
Scott said in a news release Wednesday that Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Holmes, Washington, Manatee, Osceola and Sarasota counties are now covered by his emergency order. That brings the total to 51 counties.
Scott says the emergency declaration eases access to disaster resources and funding, streamlines decision-making and allows the state to seek federal assistance.
Wolfgang Deininger and Karen Love walked around their Gulfport neighborhood to check out the early flooding. The two residents say they’ve already made preparations for the storm.
“Sandbags,” said Deininger. “I’ve got sand bags in the back of my jeep, we’re driving around, seeing if anybody needs any.”
Villafranca reported that the system has the potential to dump 15 inches of rain in parts of Florida before making its way across the peninsula and delivering a round of severe weather to the Carolinas later this week.
