Florida braces for full force of Tropical Storm Colin

Residents on Florida’s Gulf coast filled sandbags, schools planned to close early, and governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency as Tropical Storm Colin gained speed and churned towards the state, threatening serious flooding.

A large portion of Florida’s western and Panhandle coast was already under a tropical storm warning when the National Hurricane Center announced that a swift-moving depression had become a named storm. The centre said it is the earliest that a third named storm has ever formed in the Atlantic basin.

Colin’s maximum sustained winds yesterday had increased to nearly 80kph, with slow strengthening possible.