The live video above is from sister station WESH in Orlando, Florida

Tropical Storm Nicole is forcing people from their homes in the Bahamas and it threatens to grow into a rare November hurricane in Florida on Wednesday. It has made landfall in the Bahamas and also has shut down airports in Florida.

This is a breaking news update. The previous story follows below.

Hundreds of people sought shelter in the northwestern Bahamas before the approaching storm, which had already sent seawater washing across roads on Hutchinson Island in Martin County, Florida.

“We are forecasting it to become a hurricane as it nears the northwestern Bahamas, and remain a hurricane as it approaches the east coast of Florida," Daniel Brown, a senior hurricane specialist at the Miami-based National Hurricane Center, said Wednesday.

Nicole is the first storm to hit the Bahamas since Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that devastated the archipelago in 2019, before hitting storm-weary Florida.

In the Bahamas, officials said that more than 520 people were in more than two dozen shelters. Flooding and power outages were reported in Abaco island.

“We are asking people to please take it (seriously),” said Andrea Newbold with the Disaster Management Unit for Social Services. “Don’t wait until the last minute.”

Video below: Palm Beach County orders mandatory evacuation zones

Residents in several Florida counties — Flagler, Palm Beach, Martin and Volusia — were ordered to evacuate from barrier islands, low-lying areas and mobile homes.

Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club and home, is in one of those evacuation zones, built about a quarter-mile inland from the ocean. The main buildings sit on a small rise that is about 15 feet above sea level and the property has survived numerous stronger hurricanes since it was built nearly a century ago. The resort’s security office hung up Wednesday when an Associated Press reporter asked whether the club was being evacuated.

There is no penalty for ignoring an evacuation order, but rescue crews will not respond if it puts their members at risk.

Disney World and related theme parks announced they were closing early on Wednesday evening and likely would not reopen as scheduled on Thursday.

Palm Beach International Airport closed Wednesday morning, and Daytona Beach International Airport said it would cease operations at 12:30 p.m. Orlando International Airport, the seventh busiest in the U.S., was set to close at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Further south, officials said Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport were experiencing some flight delays and cancellations but both planned to remain open.

At a news conference in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis said winds were the biggest concern and and significant power outages could occur, but that 16,000 linemen were on standby to restore power, as well as 600 guardsmen and seven search and rescue teams.

“It will affect huge parts of the state of Florida all day,” DeSantis said of the storm’s expected landing.

Almost two dozen school districts were closing schools for the storm and 15 shelters had opened along Florida’s east coast, the governor said.

Florida Division of Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie said Floridians should expect possible tornadoes, rip currents and flash flooding.

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Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis, who is at the COP27 U.N. Climate Summit, said he has mobilized all government resources.

“There have always been storms, but as the planet warms from carbon emissions, storms are growing in intensity and frequency,” he said. “For those in Grand Bahama and Abaco, I know it is especially difficult for you to face another storm,” Davis said, referring to the islands hardest hit by Dorian.

At 10 a.m., the storm was 25 miles east northeast of Great Abaco Island and about 210 miles east of West Palm Beach, Florida. With maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, the storm was moving at 12 mph.

Tropical storm force winds extended as far as 460 miles from the center in some directions.

It could intensify into a rare November hurricane before hitting Florida, where only two have made landfall since recordkeeping began in 1853 — the 1935 Yankee Hurricane and Hurricane Kate in 1985.

New warnings and watches were issued for many parts of Florida, including the southwestern Gulf coastline which was devastated by Hurricane Ian, which struck as a Category 4 storm on Sept. 28. The storm destroyed homes and damaged crops, including orange groves, across the state.

Ian lashed much of the central region of Florida with heavy rainfall, causing flooding that many residents are still dealing with as Nicole approaches.

In Florida, the “combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline," the hurricane center's advisory said.

Hurricane specialist Brown said the storm will affect a large part of the state.

“Because the system is so large, really almost the entire east coast of Florida except the extreme southeastern part and the Keys is going to receive tropical storm force winds," he said.

The storm is then expected to move across central and northern Florida into southern Georgia on Thursday, forecasters said. It was then forecast to move across the Carolinas on Friday.

“We are going to be concerned with rainfall as we get later into the week across portions of the southeastern United States and southern Appalachians, where there could be some flooding, flash flooding with that rainfall," Brown said.

Early Wednesday, President Joe Biden declared an emergency in Florida and ordered federal assistance to supplement state, tribal and local response efforts to the approaching storm. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is still responding to those in need from Hurricane Ian.

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RALEIGH, North Carolina — Once every ten years, the map of America turns into a board game.

"The party that has the most seats has the power of the pen. They get to draw the maps," said Bill Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause North Carolina.

What he's talking about is redistricting – when state congressional districts are redrawn to reflect the population gain or decline. Some states lose seats, others gain seats, all based on the census count.

In some states, a nonpartisan panel draws the districts, but in 39 states, the lawmakers choose their own district borders.

"I think most people are stunned to learn that. And I hate to use the word. Our elections are rigged. We live in a democracy, but because of the way the districts are drawn, we know who is going to win by and large," he said.

Common Cause is a non-partisan group whose mission is to protect fair elections. Something Phillips doesn’t believe can happen with how the system is set up.

"Out of the 435 congressional contests that will be up in November. Maybe 40 of them at most are actually competitive. That's just not healthy," he said.

You can see what he’s talking about by looking at the shapes in some of these districts. Take Illinois’ newly drawn 17^thdistrict. We all can agree that this… as far as shapes go… is an odd one. People like Phillips say it looks this way because of the party in power.

In this case, democrats want to include as many democratic voters as possible.

In Lousiana, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, despite being more than an hour away are in one blue district together in a sea of red. This pattern repeats across the country in states where lawmakers map the maps.

"Voting and redistricting is a part of the game of chess. So what is happening is that you have a group a party that looks to a stack the chips, or it looks to dilute the vote of others and it looks to draw lies in their favor," said Eric Claville, a political and legal analyst.

The practice of drawing lines in favor of political parties is called gerrymandering. Both Claville and Philips say gerrymandering has been one of the many ways politicians have tried to silence the voice of disenfranchised groups, like African Americans.

"We still see redistricting done that will often be discriminatory to Black voters, and by that, I mean districts are drawn that might pack Black voters or crack, and that is diluting, the actual vote of an African American voter," said Phillips.

Ohio, New York, Mississippi, Texas and North Carolina are some of the states with ongoing contentious maps battles. Political parties are suing over maps drawn by opposing parties.

"To protect the rights of all, to be able to vote and not just be able to vote, but also to vote in districts that are fair, that are equitable and that are challenging and not those districts that are going to disenfranchise the power of the voter," said Claville.

Learning about this issue can make voters feel powerless. Advocates say that is not the case. If these practices concern you, you still have a voice and you can use it to rallying change for non-partisan redistricting practices.

"No matter how much money is spent, no matter what happens in the media, it boils down to this one point: one person, one vote. So if you could engage, if you could bring together a mass of votes, then you have the power in order to dictate the conversation and ultimately the outcome," said Claville.