Florida coast battered by Hurricane Hermine

Tropical storm Hermine has made landfall in northern Florida, becoming the first hurricane to hit the state in 11 years.

Hermine hit the Florida Gulf Coast early on Friday as a category one hurricane, bringing with it a heavy storm surge.

Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for 51 counties as residents were braced for the dangerous storm.

Wind gusts reached 80mph (130km/h), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Two hours after making landfall, as it moved inland, Hermine was downgraded to a tropical storm, the National Weather Service said.

It passed through Florida and is now making its way through Georgia before heading for the Carolinas.

Police in Taylor County, that has a population of more than 20,000, said the storm had inflicted "severe damage".

City officials in the state capital Tallahassee, where people were urged to move to higher ground to avoid flash floods, said at least 70,000 homes were now without power.

South of Tallahassee, the town of Cedar Key saw a 6.6ft (two-metre) storm surge, raising high tide to almost 10ft. Images from the town posted on social media showed significant flooding.

"It is a mess... we have high water in numerous places," Virgil Sandlin, the police chief in Cedar Key, told the Weather Channel. "I was here in 1985 for Hurricane Elena and I don't recall anything this bad."

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Hurricanes in the US

• While Florida is prone to storms and storm surges, it has not seen a hurricane in close to 4,000 days
• The last hurricane to strike Florida was Wilma in October 2005, which made landfall in the same year as Katrina and caused five deaths and an estimated $23bn (£17bn) of damage
• The last tropical storm to hit Florida - what was once Hurricane Colin - was in June, and struck an area close to Hermine
• In fact, Hermine is the first hurricane to make landfall in the US since Arthur in July 2014 - no hurricanes touched down in 2010, 2013 or 2015

"This is life threatening. We have not had a hurricane in years," Gov Scott said.

He added that 8,000 members of the Florida National Guard were prepared to be deployed in the wake of the storm.

Mr Scott ordered evacuations in five counties in Florida's north-west and called for voluntary evacuations in three other coastal counties.

Source: BBC NEWS