Gabrielle Heads For Florida

September 13, 2001 / 2:46 PM EDT / AP

Tropical Storm Gabrielle could become a hurricane at some point on Friday, when it is expected to hit Florida's southwest coast near Sarasota.

A hurricane watch is posted for southwest Florida on Thursday as Gabrielle moved closer to land. As much as six inches of rain fell Thursday.

Metropolitan areas from Miami to Palm Beach County got 3 inches of rain or more overnight, while Jacksonville got a 6.3-inch soaking. South Florida is under an urban flood advisory, and a flood watch has also been posted for the rest of the state.

"It's going to be a major flooding event," said Ann Rowe, spokeswoman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

A hurricane watch has been issued for 185 miles along the state's west coast from the Everglades to north of Tampa Bay. The watch means hurricane conditions are possible by Friday afternoon.

A tropical storm warning stretched from the middle of the Florida Keys to the Suwannee River.

Sarasota and Polk County schools will be closed Friday as a precaution. The threat of high winds and rain prompted the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa to deploy aircraft to a base in Kansas. The planes would not have been able to take off in the storm's weather.

In southeastern Hardee County, seven houses and 14 mobile homes were evacuated Thursday morning due to flooding.

"Right now, we're not looking at a super-storm or anything like that," said Jack Beven, hurricane specialist at Miami's National Hurricane Center. "It will cause some problems though."

The nearly stationary storm, with top winds of 50 mph, has been sitting off Florida's southern gulf coast.

Gabrielle is the seventh named storm of the season. It is about 145 miles west-southwest of Naples and was drifting northeast, but could turn more north. On this track, the storm's center would approach the west-central coast of Florida on Friday.

Any motion through early Friday is expected to be slow and erratic, said hurricane specialist Richard Pasch at the National Hurricane Center.

In the central Atlantic, Hurricane Felix strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane with 115-mph winds. It was about 1,410 miles southwest of the Azores island chain, heading north. Felix is not believed to be not a threat to land, forecasters said.

In the north Atlantic, Erin is 480 miles southwest of Cape Race, Newfoundland. It is a minimal hurricane with 80 mph winds.

Erin is expected to pass over or near Newfoundland, but could lose circulation and other hurricane characteristics over the colder waters.

Eight-to-15 foot swells associated with Erin are expected to affect the coastlines of the northeastern United States and Canadian maritime provinces.