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State officials are tracking Tropical Storm Erika as it makes it’s way potentially toward Florida. As Matt Galka tells us, it could turn into a hurricane, and the Governor says after all these years of Florida being hurricane-free, people still need a plan.

Emergency management officials briefed Governor Rick Scott on the latest information for Tropical Storm Erika Thursday.

The storm could intensify and become Florida’s first hurricane in a decade.  Governor Scott says Floridians shouldn’t get complacent after 10 years of no hurricanes.

“You have got and stop and say to yourself “I know I want to do all the fun things this weekend,” but just get ready for this. Hopefully this will not be a big problem, but we live in a peninsula, so lets get prepared,” said Gov. Scott.

The state’s Emergency Operations Center sits at Level 2 activation – a step below the level that is used when hurricanes or strong storms are imminent.  There’s still uncertainty for the storm’s path. And while it could be the first hurricane during the Governor’s time in office, he says he’s no stranger to the storms.

The Governor was running a hospital chain in 1992 when Hurricane Andrew devastated South Florida.

“We had a hospital, basically, completely demolished. We had 500 employees without homes, we had to handle patients for hours, but we had a complete team there, we got our hospitals back open, and we did a good job,” he said.

Millions of people moved to the state since the last hurricane hit. Officials say they’re guiding local efforts.

“Our regional coordinators are out throughout the state, in those county emergency operations centers, interacting direclyt with their county emergency management counterparts. I’ve communicated with our folks at FEMA, we have representatives from DHS here in the EOC, so all levels of Government are engaged at this point,” said Emergency Management Director Bryan Koon.

The main message: Florida won’t be hurricane free forever, so everyone should always have a plan in place.