Now that Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine has formed, it is expected to intensify over the next few days, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The forecast calls for it to become Tropical Storm Helene by Tuesday morning. Tropical Storm Warnings and Hurricane Watches have been issued for portions of Mexico and Cuba.

Because there is a relatively short window before PTC 9 could impact Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 41 of Florida's 67 counties. Watches or warnings could be up for parts of Florida as soon as Tuesday.

According to Gov. DeSantis, “There is a significant threat of storm surge, coastal flooding and erosion, heavy rainfall and flash flooding, and damaging winds to the Florida Gulf Coast."

Rapid intensification is possible, according to the National Hurricane Center, adding models show the system has the potential to strengthen to a major hurricane over the next 72 hours. A major hurricane is a Category 3 or higher storm, with sustained winds of at least 111 mph.

Due to Hurricane Debby, the water tables and river levels across North and West-Central Florida remain above normal, and the additional incoming heavy rainfall will likely cause significant flooding.

Declaring a state of emergency allows state and local governments much more freedom to coordinate their emergency agencies, relax restrictions, cut through red tape and reallocate resources to quickly deal with an imminent or ongoing threat that local services can't handle on their own.

Counties that are under a state of emergency have sandbags available to residents. Check with your local municipality for more information on where to get them. You can also click this link from Florida’s Division of Emergency management to get more info on how to prepare in the coming days.

Click here to prepare for the storm:

To make sure your hurricane kit is stocked and ready to go with essentials, check out our article and video here:

Hurricane kit essentials: Video tutorial
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