Hurricane Hermine moves closer to Florida coast

The National Hurricane Center says the eye Hurricane Hermine is expected to make its Florida landfall in "the next few hours."

The Category 1 hurricane is roaring across the northwest Gulf Coast with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph).

As of 11 p.m. EDT Thursday, the eye of the storm is centered about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southwest of Keaton Beach, Florida.

It's moving to the north-northeast at 14 mph (22 kph) as it nears northwest Florida's Gulf Coast.

Forecasters are warning of the possibility of a life-threatening storm surge and flooding from heavy rains from the storm.

Some residents of the Florida capital city of Tallahassee lost power as Hurricane Hermine approached land. A city-maintained outage map shows power had gone out Thursday evening in various locations around the city, situated about 40 miles from the Gulf Coast.

The outages began just minutes after Gov. Rick Scott said that it was inevitable that the electricity would go out because the city is filled with "beautiful trees" that could come down on power lines.

Utility officials couldn't immediately be reached to determine how many customers were affected.

Tallahassee has not a direct hit by a hurricane in 30 years. Hurricane Kate caused widespread power outages and some of them lasted for weeks.