The Tribune

THE US National Hurricane Center said on Thursday afternoon that data from an air force aircraft indicates that Tropical Storm Hermine has strengthened to a hurricane, with maximum sustained winds increasing to near 75mph.

Hermine's upgrade from tropical storm makes it the fourth hurricane of 2016 in the Atlantic basin.

People on Florida's Gulf coast stocked up on supplies on Thursday and some set out sandbags as they braced for Hermine, which forecasters had said could make landfall on Thursday night or Friday morning as a hurricane.

A hurricane warning was in effect for Florida's Big Bend from the Suwannee River to Mexico Beach. And on the East Coast, a tropical storm warning was issued for an area that extended from Marineland, Florida, north to the South Santee River in South Carolina.

Georgia's governor declared a state of emergency for 56 counties through Saturday, in anticipation of high water and strong winds.

As of 8am on Thursday, Hermine was centred about 235 miles west-southwest of Tampa, Florida, and was moving north-northeast near 12mph.

Residents in some low-lying communities in Florida were being asked to evacuate on Thursday as the storm approached. The Tallahassee Democrat reported that 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. Residents in other low-lying areas prone to flooding were also being asked to evacuate.

Florida Governor Rick Scott ordered state government offices in 51 counties to close at noon on Thursday. The order included the state capital of Tallahassee, home to tens of thousands of state workers. The city, roughly 35 miles from the coast, has not had a direct hit by hurricane in 30 years.

The last hurricane to strike Florida was Hurricane Wilma, which entered the state from along the south west Gulf of Mexico coast as a Category 3 storm on October 24, 2005. It swept across the Everglades and struck highly-populated south Florida, causing five deaths in the state and an estimated $23 billion in damage, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Residents were out in force on Thursday morning preparing for the storm and stores were already running low on bottled water and flashlights. City crews were struggling to keep up with demand for sand with sandbags. People in the Big Bend area were getting ready for possible storm surge and heavy rain.

Flooding is expected across a wide swath of the Big Bend area, which has a mostly marshy coastline. Florida's Big Bend area extends from just east of the Apalachicola River in the Panhandle to roughly the Cedar Key area, which is west of Gainesville. It is made up of mostly rural communities and smaller cities off the beaten paths of Interstate 10 and Interstate 75.

In South Carolina, news outlets reported that high school football games in many areas will be played on Thursday night because Hermine was expected to bring heavy rains to the state on Friday.

In Charleston County, emergency officials advised residents to stay at home on Friday. The storm is expected to flood streets in the Charleston area which can see high tide flooding even on sunny days.