Beach Evacuation Saturday

From the afternoon update of the Pensacola News Journal:

Escambia County officials announced early this afternoon that Pensacola Beach will close to sightseers and tourists at noon Saturday because of the threat of Hurricane Dennis.

Residents and business owners will be asked to leave the beach at 6 p.m. Saturday.

Dennis, a Category 4 hurricane currently crossing the island of Cuba, is scheduled to arrive on the Gulf Coast somewhere between New Orleans and Tallahassee, National Hurricane Center forecasters say.

Elsewhere Friday, there were news reports that "40,000 residents and tourists were ordered out of the beachside town of Gulf Shores" and 458,000 in a parish south of New Orleans were asked to evacuate.

Residents of south Walton County also were evacuating Friday.