Citing a five-day forecast from the U.S. National Hurricane Center that predict Tropical Storm Erika to travel "up the spine of Florida" from Sunday into next week, Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency on Friday.
In preparation for the arrival of Erika, on Thursday, Scott said 8,000 National Guard were ready to mobilize and communications had been tested in anticipation of a weekend landfall.
Scott urged Florida residents, especially those who have moved to area in the decade since Hurricane Wilma - the last major storm to hit the state in 2005 - to follow weather reports closely.
While some likely weakening of Erika - over the Dominican Republic - the storm was no longer forecast to make U.S. landfall as a hurricane.
However, come Monday, Erika could still smack the Miami area with sustained winds of 60 miles per hour before heading northward up the center of Florida peninsula, affecting Orlando's popular theme parks.
Erika, the fifth named tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, has been unusually hard to predict by weather forecasters due to disruption from wind patterns and its interaction over land - which weakens a storm - and warm water - which adds energy to the storm.
Flooding is a major concern as it regains intensity over warm seas in the Bahamas and the Straits of Florida.
Contributed by Millennium Traders
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