Washington, Sept. 1, 2016 — Florida Governor, Rick Scott has activated Florida’s Gulf Coast, about 100 National Guard soldiers and airmen as Category 1 Hurricane Hermine heads for the coast of Florida.
Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said another 6,000 soldiers and airman will be placed on alert, adding that under Emergency Management Assistance Compact(EMAC), 34,000 additional personnel can be brought in from other states to help in Florida, if needed.
“This is a well-equipped Guard under the governor’s control that has about 2,500 high water vehicles, eight helicopters, 17 boats and more than 700 generators,” Davis said, “so the Guard is working very well as they are intended to do, to be able to support people in their greatest time of need,” he said.
Davis said Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, has been identified as a staging area.“It has trucks and trailers available in the event that [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] requests it to be used as an initial staging base for further requirements,” the captain said and that Air Force indicates that some aircraft have been relocated from a few Florida locations, including Hurlburt Field and Eglin Air Force Base, both located near the Gulf of Mexico on the state’s Panhandle.
National Weather Service’s Hurricane Center said warning for previously Tropical Storm, now Hurricane, Hermine extend southward along the west coast of Florida to Englewood, including the greater Tampa/St. Petersburg area, and southward along the east coast of Florida to the Flagler/Volusia County line.
Hurricane Hermine is moving toward the north-northeast at nearly 14 miles per hour, and this motion, with a slight increase in forward speed, is expected during the next day or so. On the forecast track, the center of Hermine will be near the Florida coast in the hurricane warning area tonight or early Friday, the NWS says.
Current maximum sustained winds exceed 70 mph with higher gusts. The NWS anticipates Hermine’s wind strength will exceed 80 mph. Hermine’s winds extend outward up to 185 miles, mainly to the northeast and southeast of its center.
