Pinellas County School District Announces Friday Status

LARGO, FL — Pinellas County public school students are scoring an extra-long Labor Day weekend courtesy of Hurricane Hermine. The school district announced late Thursday that classes have been canceled on Friday, Sept. 2.

The district said the decision was made “in the interest of safety for students, staff and families,” according to its website. “Schools will open and district business will resume as normal on Tuesday, Sept. 6 following the Labor Day holiday.”

The district joins several others in the Tampa Bay area who have decided to close Friday in light of the potential for severe weather and flooding. Hillsborough and Pasco counties have both announced similar decisions.

See also: Hurricane Hermine Forms Off Florida's Gulf Coast; May Swing Up East Coast

The National Hurricane Center reported that Hurricane Hermine was located about 85 miles south of Apalachicola at 5 p.m. Thursday. Hermine was packing maximum sustained winds of 75 mph and was moving north-northeast at 14 mph. It is expected to make landfall along Florida's northern Gulf Coast or in the Big Bend area sometime late Thursday or early Friday. It will be the first hurricane in Florida since 2005's deadly Hurricane Wilma made landfall in the Sunshine State.

As of Thursday afternoon, tropical storm force winds were extending outward from the storm up to 185 miles to the northeast and southeast of the center, forecasters say. Hurricane force winds were extending outward up to 45 miles from the center, forecasters said.

On its present track, Hurricane Hermine is expected to cut across northern Florida Friday before heading toward Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina as a tropical storm. Hermine is also projected to have an impact on Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey over the Labor Day weekend.

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