Tropical Storm Colin causes problems in Fla.

Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla.

Heavy rains from Tropical Storm Colin hit north Florida and southern Georgia on Monday, knocking out power in some areas and flooding roads on the Gulf coast.

Residents filled sandbags, schools closed early and graduation ceremonies were postponed as Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency.

The National Hurricane Center said Colin marked the earliest that a third named storm has ever formed in the Atlantic basin.

Colin was moving north-northeast at 23 mph, and its center was about 35 miles south-southeast of Apalachicola at 8 p.m. Maximum sustained winds were measured at 50 mph with higher gusts.

Early Monday, Ronald P. Milligan, 74, stopped by a park in St. Petersburg where authorities planned to distribute sandbags because the ditch in front of his home had filled during the previous evening’s rain.

“If last night was a ‘no storm’ – and the water was almost up to the hump in my yard – I’m worried,” Milligan said, motioning to about knee level. He’s lived in Florida since the late 1970s and hasn’t ever prepared for a storm this early.

Sandbags also were distributed in Tampa and cities and counties throughout the region.

The latest forecast for Colin called for the center of the storm to make landfall near the Big Bend area of Florida sometime Monday evening, and move across the Florida peninsula into Georgia and then move along or just off the South Carolina coast before heading out to sea.

Schools in at least one Florida Gulf Coast county were dismissed early Monday, and two high-school graduations in the Tampa Bay area were postponed due to the storms, with both ceremonies being moved to Wednesday night and Thursday. Winds from Colin also closed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa.

Colin is expected to produce rainfall amounts of 3 to 6 inches, and forecasters said up to 8 inches are possible across north Florida, southeastern Georgia and coastal areas of the Carolinas through today.