Hurricane Hermine nears landfall in Florida

With Hurricane Hermine just hours away from landfall along the Gulf Coast of Florida, heavy rains are already pelting parts of the state and high winds are coming ashore.

Hermine is a Category 1 hurricane, and Weather Channel meteorologist Ari Sarsalari said the entire Big Bend area — where the state's peninsula meets the Panhandle — is in for "a brutal night." Hermine is expected to make landfall early Friday somewhere between Apalachicola and Horseshoe Beach, and Gov. Rick Scott (R) has put 51 counties under a state of emergency. Sarsalari said the storm surge is "going to be the scariest part of Hurricane Hermine," and the National Weather Service warns of "life-threatening inundation within the next 12 to 24 hours" along the Gulf Coast from Indian Pass to Longboat Key.

The hurricane is expected to become a non-tropical low over the weekend as it makes its way up the coast to the Carolinas on Friday and Saturday. This will be the first hurricane landfall in Florida since Hurricane Wilma hit in 2005.

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