Water flies off shelves as SoFla keeps eye on Irma

Many stock up on food, hope

As Hurricane Irma continues its westward push toward the Caribbean, South Floridians started emptying store shelves in early preparation for a possible hurricane hit.

Although Irma is still too far away to tell whether it will affect Florida, people flocked to stores to stockpile water and food. Shelves usually brimming with water bottles were bare at several stores Sunday afternoon.

“We’re really preparing because it seems like it’s going to be heading our way,” said Kimberly Antequara, of Pompano Beach, as

she loaded a 5-gallon water jug into her cart at BJ’s in Parkland. She said this is the first time she’s bought supplies for a hurricane despite being from here.

Irma was still days away from the eastern edge of the Caribbean, and its potential impact there is uncertain.

Equally uncertain is whether Irma will have an impact on Florida or the U.S. East Coast, but forecaster Dave Roberts at the National Hurricane Center said the storm should be monitored closely.

Forecasters said the Category 3 storm, with top winds of 115 miles an hour, was about 790 miles east of the islands of Barbuda and Antigua, which are on the eastern perimeter of the Caribbean, and about 2,100 miles from South Florida, as of 8 p.m. Sunday.

The storm was moving west at 14 miles an hour. Some additional strengthening and slowing down is forecast through Monday night.

Irma’s center is expected to approach the eastern Caribbean islands late Tuesday.

Hurricane-force winds of at least 74 mph extend outward up to 35 miles from the center and tropical storm-force winds of 39 mph extend outward up to

140 miles.

As of 8 p.m., hurricane watches are in effect for several Caribbean islands: Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla, Montserrat, St. Kitts, Nevis Saba, St. Eustatius, Sint Maarten, St. Martin and Saint Barthelemy. Watches may be issued Monday for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Nick Wilmott, 30, of Fort Lauderdale, said he isn’t worried about the storm yet. But he bought several cases of water Sunday at BJ’s just in case.

“No one knows what’s going to happen yet,” Wilmott said. “I always like to keep a couple jugs of water on hand to beat the hustle in the stores when people go crazy.”

The latest forecast cone puts the eye of the storm near the southeastern Bahamas at 2 a.m. Friday.

In a briefing, the National Weather Service said the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas were in the potential track of Irma.

Beyond the Bahamas lies the U.S.

But hurricane forecaster Dan Brown cautioned, “Don’t infer too much from where the end of the cone is pointed.”

Relatively small scale changes in the storm’s direction and behavior when far out to sea can mean big differences in the storm’s track, he said.

“There are limits to predictability,” Brown said.

Still, “a storm headed in the general direction of Florida and the Southeast U.S. is something people should pay attention to,” Brown said. “It is not time to panic. But it is the peak of the hurricane season and a holiday weekend is a good time to stock up on hurricane supplies.”

Juan Bernard,of Deerfield Beach, said he and his wife plan on getting more supplies throughout the week if the situation gets worse.

“We’re getting water for a few days for now,” Bernard said after loading his cart with water bottles at WalMart in Deerfield.

Irma is the ninth named storm of the 2017 season.

Forecasters are also watching a tropical wave located several hundred miles southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands that is producing an area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms. Conditions are conducive for gradual development during the next few days, and a tropical depression could form by the end of the week as the system moves west to west-northwest at about 10 mph over the Atlantic, forecasters said.

The wave has a 60 percent chance of storm formation over the next five days.