CEDAR KEY, Fla.: Hurricane Hermine gained new strength Thursday evening and roared ever closer to Florida’s Gulf Coast, where rough surf began battering docks and boathouses and people braced for the first direct hit on the state from a hurricane in over a decade.
The National Hurricane Center said the storm’s top sustained winds ratcheted up from 75 mph in the afternoon to 80 mph by evening as the former tropical storm gained new fury nearing the coast. Forecasters said the storm was expected to gain even some slight additional strength before coming ashore.
Hermine was expected to blow ashore late Thursday or early Friday along the state’s Big Bend — the mostly rural and lightly populated corner where the Florida peninsula meets the Panhandle — then drop back down to a tropical storm and push into Georgia, the Carolinas and up the East Coast with the potential for drenching rain and deadly flooding.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott warned of the danger 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 have enough food, water and medicine.
“This is a life-threatening situation,” Scott said. “It’s going to be a lot of risk. Right now, I want everybody to be safe.”
Scott added that 6,000 National Guardsmen in Florida are ready to mobilize after the storm passes. The governors of Georgia and North Carolina declared states of emergency.
In Hawaii, a tropical storm left parts of Big Island soggy but intact Thursday as residents of the island state prepared for a second round of potentially volatile tropical weather.
Hawaii Island was pummeled with heavy rains and powerful waves overnight, but residents woke to blue skies and little damage after Madeline skirted the island. Hurricane Lester remains on track to affect the islands this weekend and was upgraded to a Category 3 storm Thursday afternoon.