Hurricane Elsa lurked off the Tampa Bay area Tuesday night, threatening the northern Gulf Coast of Florida ahead of its expected landfall on Wednesday morning, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said, Trend reports citing Reuters.
The first hurricane of the season, Elsa was about 65 miles (105 km) southwest of Tampa and moving northward at 14 mph (22 kph), the NHC said in an 11 p.m. ET (0300 GMT, Wednesday) advisory.
A former tropical storm that doused Cuba with heavy rainfall and claimed at least three lives in the Caribbean, Elsa strengthened to hurricane force as it moved toward Florida, packing maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph).
A hurricane warning was in effect for nearly 200 miles (300 km) of the Gulf Coast stretching north from Tampa Bay.