The Tribune

HERMINE tore across northern Florida on Friday as the first hurricane to hit the state in more than a decade, killing one person, raising a storm surge that destroyed beachside buildings and toppling trees into homes.

As the system pushed into Georgia, it knocked down many power lines in both states. Hundreds of thousands of people were without electricity.

Hermine quickly weakened to a tropical storm as it spun through Georgia and the Carolinas. But the National Hurricane Center (NHC) predicted it would regain hurricane strength after emerging in the Atlantic Ocean. The system could then lash coastal areas as far north as Connecticut and Rhode Island throughout Labour Day.

As of 11am on Friday, it had weakened from its peak wind speed of 80mph to a tropical storm. The NHC issued tropical storm watches and warnings as far north as the Connecticut-Rhode Island border.

“Anyone along the US East Coast needs to be paying close attention this weekend,” NHC spokesman Dennis Feltgen said.

A homeless man in Marion County, south of Gainesville, was killed when he was hit by a tree, Goverrnor Rick Scott said at a news conference.

Although damage was still being assessed, the governor said he knew of no other “major issues” besides the power outages and damaged roads. It was unclear whether he had received word of damage to remote and sparsely populated beach areas just south of the Big Bend, where the peninsula meets the Panhandle. An estimated 325,000 people were without power across Florida.

At Dekle Beach, a storm surge damaged numerous homes and destroyed storage buildings and a 100-yard fishing pier. The area is about 60 miles southeast of St Marks, where Hermine made landfall at 1.30am. An unnamed spring storm that hit the beach in 1993 killed 10 people who refused to evacuate. This time, only three residents stayed behind. All escaped injury.

In nearby Steinhatchee, a storm surge crashed into Bobbi Pattison’s home. She wore galoshes and was covered in black muck as she stood in her living room amid overturned furniture and an acrid smell. Tiny crabs darted around her floor.

“I had a hurricane cocktail party last night and God got even with me,” she said with a chuckle. Where her bar once stood now was only wet sand and rubble. Mrs Pattison and two neighbours managed to set upright a large wooden statue of a sea captain she had carved from wood that washed ashore in the 1993 storm.

In Keaton Beach, about two dozen people waited on a road just after sunrise on Friday, trying to get to their homes. Police blocked the road because of flooding. Dustin Beach, 31, had rushed there from a hospital in Tallahassee where his wife had given birth on Thursday night to a girl to see if his home still stood.

“When my wife got up this morning, she said, ‘Go home and check on the house. I need to know where we’re going after we leave the hospital’,” Mr Beach said.

High winds knocked trees onto several houses in Tallahassee, injuring people inside. Fire-rescue spokesman Mike Bellamy said an unknown number of people were taken to hospitals with injuries that were not thought to be life-threatening. His agency responded to more than 300 calls overnight. The governor estimated that 325,000 people statewide had no power.

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge that spans Tampa Bay remained closed on Friday morning because of high winds, but Tampa and St Petersburg escaped major damage. Up to 17 inches of rain fell in the area over the last two days.

At 5pm, Hermine had maximum sustained winds of 50mph, the NHC said. It was centred about 30 south west of Charleston, South Carolina, and was moving northeast at 20mph. The system was forecast to strengthen back into a hurricane by Monday morning off the Maryland-Delaware coast before weakening again as it moves north. Tropical storm watches and warnings were posted up and down the coastline.

By late Friday morning, more than 107,000 customers were left without power across Georgia, utility companies reported.

The last hurricane to strike Florida was Wilma, a powerful Category 3 storm that arrived on October 24, 2005. It swept across the Everglades and struck heavily populated south Florida, causing five deaths in the state and an estimated $23 billion in damage.

Governor Scott declared an emergency in 51 counties. He said 6,000 National Guardsmen were poised to mobilise for the storm’s aftermath. The governors of Georgia and North Carolina also declared states of emergency.