ST PETERSBURG, Florida (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Alberto was on the verge of becoming the first hurricane of 2006 on Monday as it spun over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and began to lash the northwest Florida shore.
Anxious officials ordered thousands of residents to evacuate barrier islands, flood plains and trailer parks as the storm's maximum sustained winds accelerated to near 70 miles per hour (110 kph).
The outer fringes of the storm gusted ashore with sheets of rain and forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said its core would move over northern Florida by daybreak.
At 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT on Tuesday), Alberto's winds were just shy of the 74 mph (119 kph) threshold at which tropical storms become hurricanes.
'This is still strong enough to cause some significant damage,' U.S. National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield told CNN. 'We don't want to overdo this but we sure don't want to underdo it either.'
Alberto could still intensify into a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, he said.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency even though the most likely area of landfall was sparsely populated swampland and farming country. The area has no big cities like New Orleans, devastated in August by Hurricane Katrina.
Florida officials said 26 shelters in 16 counties had been opened for evacuees.
'This is a serious storm and we are taking it seriously,' Bush said. 'We're not dealing with large numbers of people. But given the storm surge we anticipate and given the velocity of these winds, I hope people aren't being defiant.'
EVACUATION ORDERS
Around 21,000 people were affected by evacuation orders. The emergency director in one rural area, Citrus County, went door to door to urge people to seek higher ground.
Alberto was about 95 miles (150km) south-southeast of Apalachicola, in Florida's panhandle, at 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT), according to a hurricane center bulletin. It was moving northeast at about 10 mph (17 kph).
Energy traders said Alberto's path should take it too far east to cause disruptions or damage to offshore oil and gas platforms battered during last year's record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season. There were 28 tropical storms in the June-November 2005 season, of which 15 became hurricanes.
Experts have forecast another busier-than-average season this year, as conditions remain favorable for hurricanes. Alberto's formation less than two weeks after the June 1 start of the season seemed to underscore the predictions.
Rain pelted Florida's west coast and the hurricane center said 4-8 inches were possible through Tuesday across parts of the state and Georgia.
Storm surge flooding up to 10 feet above normal tide levels was expected across much of the Gulf coast.
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