Bulking up rapidly, Tropical Storm Alberto was forecast to strike Florida’s upper Gulf Coast on Tuesday as a minimal hurricane with 75 m.p.h. winds, pounding rains and a 10-foot storm surge, forcing more than 20,000 residents to evacuate.
If so, it would be the earliest hurricane to strike the state in 40 years, the National Hurricane Center said.
With the projected track taking the core about 130 miles north of Tampa, residents of five relatively sparse, rural counties were ordered to evacuate on Monday, only 12 days into the hurricane season.
Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency, putting the National Guard on alert and price-gouging laws into effect. “We’re talking about powerful forces of nature,” Bush said. “People need to take this very seriously.”
On Monday night, Alberto was in the Gulf of Mexico about 130 miles southwest of Cedar Key, churning northeast at 8 m.p.h. with sustained winds of almost 70 m.p.h., just shy of hurricane strength’s 74 m.p.h.
Areas directly in the storm’s path could get up to 10 inches of rain.
“We don’t want to overdo it. It’s not a Katrina or a Wilma, but storm surge and flooding could still cause loss of life,” said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center.
Alberto drenched western Cuba on Monday after a weekend of heavy rains prompted evacuations, caused some dilapidated buildings to collapse and flooded low-lying areas in Havana. There were no reports of other major damage or injuries.
A tropical depression on Sunday, the system was fortified by warm water in the gulf as well as a burst of thunderstorm activity, forecasters said.
“It’s much better organized,” the hurricane center’s Stacy Stewart said Monday. “Now it has just one organized center, whereas yesterday, it had two centers, even three.”
Because Alberto’s tropical force winds extend 230 miles from its center, stormy conditions invaded the state’s Gulf Coast on Monday afternoon. Two tornadoes were spotted in central Florida, but no injuries were reported.
Alberto was predicted to weaken to a tropical storm when it hits the coast. It was forecast to arc across southern Georgia and the Carolinas before entering the Atlantic Ocean as a depression on Thursday.
Forecasters posted a hurricane warning for the Gulf Coast and a tropical storm warning from north of Daytona Beach to the Georgia-South Carolina line.
If Alberto strikes as a hurricane, it would be the second-earliest to hit Florida. Hurricane Alma, pounded the Panhandle east of Apalachicola on June 9, 1966, said Colin McAdie, a research meteorologist at the hurricane center. Alma, a Category 1 system with 90 m.p.h. winds, killed six people.
Other June hurricanes to hit Florida include Agnes, which hit the Panhandle west of Apalachicola on June 19, 1972, and an unnamed hurricane that raked southeast Florida on June 17, 1906, McAdie said.
The common denominator: All were spawned in the Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico and moved north toward Florida, he said.
More Top Picks Sight Words Vs Decodable Books Which Should Kids Read First
“Typically, that’s where these early hurricanes form,” he said.