Hurricane Watch - Northern Gulf Coast

[alicia-w]

This is what we received at our Battlestaff meeting this morning:

1000L 10 June Tropical Update:



A Hurricane Watch has been issued by the National Hurricane
Center for the northern Gulf coast from Panama City to the Pearl River
in Mississippi. This includes all of the Eglin Reservation. Tropical
Storm Arlene has begun to organize itself over the last few hours into a
more consolidated system after moving into the southeastern Gulf of
Mexico this morning. The 1000L position is 24.0N 84.9W or about 175
miles WSW of Key West. The official NHC forecast track continues to
takes the center of the storm onto the Gulf coast late Saturday to our
west (in Mississippi or Alabama). Maximum sustained winds have increased
to 50 knots and the system is now expected to strengthen close to
hurricane intensity by landfall. Eglin AFB is now within the 50 knot
sustained forecast wind radius. While hurricane force sustained winds of
64 knots are not forecast for the Eglin reservation, a slight change in
the track of the storm to the right, and a slight increase in the
forecast intensity, would bring those conditions into our area, so the
NHC elected to include the western Florida Panhandle in the Hurricane
Watch. We still expect 5 to 10 inches of rain and a three foot storm
surge on the barrier islands. Low-lying areas (such as Postl Point)
along the Bay will also be inundated.