State of Emergency Declared in Florida, as Tropical Storm Erika Bears Down

Aimee Herd : Aug 28, 2015
Miami Herald

The storm's path is expected to move directly over Florida, and Gov. Rick Scott has called for a state of emergency over the entire state.

(Florida)—Although Tropical Storm Erika is predicted to lose strength as it moves over the mountainous terrain of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, officials in Florida are taking no chances in advance of the storm's landfall; likely on Monday. (Graphic via Accuweather.com)

According to a Miami Herald report, Erika was about 155 miles east of Santo Domingo hurling winds of about 50-mph, at 5am on Friday morning.

The storm's path is expected to move directly over Florida, and Gov. Rick Scott called for a state of emergency over the entire state.

Erika has already done heavy damage with mudslides in Dominica, where the island's prime minister Roosevelt Skerrit noted that "the country has been badly beaten."

He added, "The sadness is about the potential loss of life in Dominica. Our hope is that those persons who are missing will be located alive."