Tropical Storm Emily

According to the National Hurricane Center’s latest update issued at 2 pm, Hurricane Emily passed over West Central Florida. Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott declared this as a state of emergency for 31 counties, considering this tropical storm made landfall on the Gulf Coast.

31 counties were affected by Emily, which initiated Scott’s call for a state of emergency. Some of the counties included in the state of emergency were Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte and Lee. Scott called this as a state of emergency in order to receive help and resources from the local governments during this time of need.

There haven’t been any evacuation orders at this point in time, but Emily’s winds are exceedingly high. In fact, the storm has maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and they have increased about 10 mph from early Monday morning when the system had been appointed as Tropical Depression #6.

Residents are in the midst of flash floods and high intensity rain fall. Emily plans to expect 2-4 inches of rainfall between Tampa Bay and Naples along the West Coast of Central Florida. In more isolated areas, 8 inches of rain have fallen in the past 48 hours.

Clearly, this is a reminder that it is important to be prepared for storms like these. It seemed like Emily came out of nowhere, but Florida Governor Scott persisted that this is something Florida residents should be ready for.

Florida Governor Rick Scott tweeted, “Communities along the Gulf Coast could experience significant rainfall, flash flooding, tornadoes and damaging wind gusts. Have a plan NOW.”

We will keep you posted on the latest news regarding Tropica Storm Emily. For now, we must keep the families in Florida in our thoughts during this difficult time. We are optimistic that there won’t be any serious injuries or harm to the people of the 31 counties in Florida.