TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (VINnews) — Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson said Thursday that Florida is moving fuel, utility crews and emergency equipment into the Panhandle as Hurricane Isaias heads for the northern Gulf Coast.

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Simpson told Florida’s Voice Radio that agencies were already positioning supplies ahead of a possible weekend landfall. “We’re preparing for fuel in the area. They’re staging linemen,” he said. “The governor’s team in the EOC does a very good job.”

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He said the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is ready to send equipment, drones, search-and-rescue personnel, road-clearing crews and helicopters into hard-hit communities, in coordination with the Division of Emergency Management and the Department of Transportation.

“We’ll make sure that there is ample fuel in the Panhandle over the weekend or before the weekend, obviously, before the storm hits,” Simpson said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency Tuesday covering 25 Panhandle and Big Bend counties, including Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay, Gulf, Franklin, Wakulla and Leon. Emergency Management Director Jared Perdue said about 5,000 Florida National Guard members and about 800 State Guard members have been activated. The state has been working with power companies and shifting flood-control gear into places already wet from recent rain.

The National Hurricane Center said Thursday that Isaias was a hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 85 mph, centered in the Gulf well south of the U.S. coast and moving east-northeast. Forecasters expected more strengthening and said the storm should reach the northern Gulf Coast late Friday or early Saturday as a dangerous hurricane. A hurricane warning stretched from Ocean Springs, Miss., to the Bay-Gulf County line in Florida. Some forecasts have raised the chance of Category 2 or Category 3 strength before landfall.

Perdue said residents should not wait on the final track. He urged people to have a plan, keep seven days of food and water, and leave vehicles at least half fueled — or half charged, for electric cars.

South Florida, home to the state’s largest Jewish communities, is outside the forecast landfall zone. The sharper threat is storm surge, damaging wind and heavy rain along the Panhandle and the neighboring Gulf Coast. Smaller Jewish communities in Pensacola, Panama City and Tallahassee sit closer to the warning area and should follow local emergency orders.

Simpson also said rain over the past few days has eased drought in parts of Central Florida and the Panhandle, a help to farms even as the state shifts into storm mode.

Officials said preparations in the emergency counties should be finished Thursday. Residents were told to watch National Hurricane Center updates and leave if local authorities order an evacuation.