Governor of Florida Declares State of Emergency for Tropical Storm Erika

The governor of Florida has declared an emergency for the state after it was announced that tropical storm Erika could hit mainland as early as Monday.

Florida Governor Rick Scott made the announcement after forecasters determined that the storm will likely cut through the middle of Florida.

Erika has already ravaged Puerto Rico and the small island of Dominica, where 12 people were killed as a result of the tropical storm.

"Erika has really, really visited us with a vengeance," Claude Weeks, assistance police superintendent in Dominica, told the Associated Press in a recent interview.

Ian Pinard, Dominica's minister of works and ports, added to the Trinidad and Tobago TV station that "there are still persons missing."

 "The country's infrastructure has been devastated," he added.

NBC News meteorologist Bill Karins confirmed that although Erika is expected to reach land in Florida by Monday, the storm could be significantly weakened as it passes over the Caribbean islands.

"Erika has chosen to move across the Caribbean islands in the most difficult path possible," Karins told the media outlet. "All those mountains will tear the storm apart."

According to the Associated Press, a hurricane hasn't hit Florida in the past 10 years.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center confirmed that massive rainfall of four to eight inches over some of the Caribbean islands, including Turks and Caicos and the Virgin Islands, could cause flash flooding and mud slides.

"These rains could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a statement.