The Latest: Forecasters issue hurricane warning in Florida
[...] the Big Island and Maui County were under tropical storm warnings, with officials saying heavy rains and strong winds were possible.
Florida's governor has added nine more counties to a state of emergency declaration as Tropical Storm Hermine approaches the Gulf Coast.
Scott says the emergency declaration eases access to disaster resources and funding, streamlines decision-making and allows the state to seek federal assistance.
The alert regarding Hurricane Madeline was dropped Wednesday to a tropical storm warning.
Authorities say they've extended a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning from the Anclote River northwest of Tampa to Destin in the Florida Panhandle.
Officials urged residents to expect hurricane conditions and to take steps to protect themselves and their property.
The Miami-based center says a hurricane hunter plane has determined that a tropical depression strengthened Wednesday into the named storm and Hermine now boasts top sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph).
The center says the tropical storm should turn more toward the northeast with increasing speed on Thursday and is on a forecast track that would approach the northwest Florida coast about Thursday afternoon.
The National Park Service says it will close Georgia's Cumberland Island to visitors ahead of a tropical system expected to eventually approach the state's Atlantic coast.
The National Hurricane Center has placed the southern half of Georgia's 100-mile coast under a tropical storm watch.
A tropical storm watch is in effect for the southern half of Georgia's 100-mile coast and a stretch of north Florida's Atlantic region.
A tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico is forecast to strengthen to a tropical storm before making landfall Thursday night or Friday morning along the northwest coast of Florida.
Forecasters say a tropical depression has virtually stalled in the Gulf of Mexico but is expected to strengthen and then begin crawling toward Florida's Gulf coast.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the depression is located about 415 miles (665 kilometers) west-southwest of Tampa, Florida, with top sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph).
A hurricane watch is in effect from Florida's Anclote River just northwest of Tampa to Indian Pass in the Florida Panhandle and a tropical storm warning is in effect elsewhere from the Anclote River to the Walton Bay County line.
The tropical depression could become a tropical storm later Wednesday though no coastal warnings and watches are in effect for it.
Florida officials urged residents to pay attention to a tropical depression that's expected to head toward the state's Gulf Coast.
An emergency management official says North Carolina's Outer Banks were spared from a tropical weather system that had been moving toward the state for two days.
Dare County Emergency Management Director Drew Pearson writes in an email that the tropical depression resulted in "no impacts" on areas such as Cape Hatteras.
A tropical storm warning for the North Carolina coast was dropped Tuesday night.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Andrew Hagan says the tropical depression that's expected to become a tropical storm later Wednesday is keeping the atmosphere more moist than usual.