Florida battens down hatches for Irma
Messages vary on when people should evacuate
MIAMI— Florida residents picked store shelves clean and long lines formed at gas pumps Wednesday as Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 monster with potentially catastrophic winds of 185 mph, steamed toward the Sunshine State and a possible direct hit on the Miami metropolitan area of nearly 6 million people.
Meteorologists said Irma could strike the Miami area by early Sunday,thenraketheentirelengthof Florida’s east coast and push into Georgia and the Carolinas.
“This thing is a buzz saw. I’m glad Floridians are taking it very seriously,” said Colorado State University meteorology professor Phil Klotzbach. “I don’t see any way out of it.”
At the same time, meteorologists warned that the forecast this far out contains a large degree of uncertainty.
Republican Gov. Rick Scott waived tolls on all Florida highways and told people if they were thinking about leaving to “get out now.” But in the same breath, he acknowledged that “it’s hard to tell people where to go until we know exactly where it will go.”
Amidthedireforecastsandtheexample set by Hurricane Harvey less than two weeks ago in devastated Houston, some people who usually ride out storms in Florida seemed unwilling to risk it this time.
“Should we leave? A lot of people thatiwouldn’texpecttoleaveare leaving. So, it’s like, ‘Oh, wow!’ ” said Martie Mcclain, 66, who lives in the South Florida town of Plantation. Still, she was undecided, and she worried about getting stuck in traffic and running out of gas.
As people rushed to buy up water and other supplies, board up their homes with plywood and gas up their cars, Scott declared a state of emergency and asked the governors of Alabama and Georgia to waive trucking regulations so gasoline tankers can get fuel into Florida quickly to ease shortages.
It has been almost 25 years since Florida took a hit from a Category 5 storm. Hurricane Andrew struck just south of Miami in 1992 with winds topping 165 mph, killing 65 people and inflicting $26 billion in damage. It was at the time the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history.
As Irma drew closer, Georgia and South Carolina declared a state of emergency. North Carolina officials also kept a close eye on the hurricane.
In the Florida Keys, cars streamed northward in bumper-to-bumper traffic after visitors were instructed to leave Wednesday and residents were ordered to clear out on Thursday.
The governor estimated as many as 25,000 people had already left.
Browardcounty,whichisnorth of Miami and includes Fort Lauderdale, ordered residents in coastal and low-lying areas and mobile homes to evacuate on Thursday. The mayor of Miami Beach asked the barrier island’s residents to consider leaving immediately, while Miami-dade County officials encouraged tourists to go but held off issuing evacuation orders for residents.