DeSantis declares state of emergency for 61 counties as projected hurricane targets Florida

ORLANDO, Fla. – With a projected hurricane bearing down on Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis expanded a state of emergency declaration to 61 counties, including Marion and Sumter in Central Florida.

During an update Tuesday morning, the governor said the state of emergency now covers “every county in Florida outside Southeast Florida.”

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“Now, the storm has not yet formed, but we anticipate that to form, then the next 12 to 24 hours, and be a potentially very dangerous storm … If you look at the National Hurricane Center, they have put out their cone, and they’re actually forecasting it to be a major hurricane by the time it reaches landfall, which is category three or higher,” DeSantis said.

As of the 8 a.m. advisory, the disturbance had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph and was moving northwest at 8 mph. It is about 205 miles south-southeast of the western tip of Cuba and 150 miles west of Grand Cayman. The latest forecast shows Potential Tropical Cyclone 9 growing into a major Category 3 hurricane within the next 48 hours as it approaches Florida’s Gulf Coast.

DeSantis urged Floridians to prepare for the storm.

“There’s still a lot of uncertainty left with this. So be just be prepared. And that’s one of the reasons why we’ve done the 61 counties, because we understand that you could have impacts that are outside of where the current cone is. And in fact, we anticipate there to be impacts beyond the current cone,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis declared a state of emergency on Monday for the following 41 counties: Alachua, Bay, Bradford, Calhoun, Charlotte, Citrus, Collier, Columbia, Dixie, Escambia, Franklin, Gadsden, Gilchrist, Gulf, Hamilton, Hernando, Hillsborough, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lee, Leon, Levy, Liberty, Madison, Manatee, Marion, Monroe, Okaloosa, Pasco, Pinellas, Santa Rosa, Sarasota, Sumter, Suwannee, Taylor, Union, Wakulla, Walton, and Washington counties.

The additional 20 counties have not yet been announced by the governor’s office. We will update this story as soon as we receive the other counties included in the state of emergency.