Bull’s-eye on Tampa
Eye on track to move up Gulf Coast, but millions more at risk in Florida, Georgia
The massive storm was predicted to hit the city head-on. Irma had been downgraded to a Category 3, but forecasters said it was growing stronger.
MIAMI Only hours before Hurricane Irma was expected to slam into South Florida, a lastminute shift in its projected track put Tampa in line for a direct hit and triggered new mandatory evacuation orders for another quarter-million people.
The new track, farther west than earlier projections, would make the Tampa Bay area the bullseye for a major hurricane for the first time in almost a century.
The latest forecast calls for Irma, which has cleared the Cuban coast and headed into the Florida Straits, to roar ashore Sunday in the low-lying Florida Keys, then hit southwestern Florida, move up the state’s Gulf Coast and slam into the Tampa Bay area.
Irma had been downgraded to a Category 3 storm with 120 mph winds but forecasters say it’s gaining strength. They warned of 10- to 15-foot storm surges in the Naples area and 5 to 8 feet around Tampa.
The National Hurricane Center said major hurricane winds were expected over the Florida Keys by daybreak.
Calling Irma a “storm of enormous destructive power,” President Trump on Saturday night urged people in its path to put safety first, abandon their possessions and “get out of its way.”
Tampa has not been hit by a major hurriane since 1921, when its population was about 10,000, said National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen. Today the area has around 3 million people and includes two of Florida’s
biggest cities: Tampa and St. Petersburg.
Armed with the new forecast, Pinellas County, home to St. Petersburg, ordered 260,000 more people to leave. A hurricane warning for both coast soft he Florida peninsula up through central parts of the state was in effect.
In one of the biggest evacuations ever ordered in the U.S., about 6.3 million people in Florida— more than one-quarter of the state’s population — have now been told to clear out from threatened areas and another 540,000 were directed to move away from the Georgia coast.
Because of its 350-to 400-milewide span, Miami could feel some of the storm’ sb run despite its shift to the west, wit
th the metro area expected to be pounded by life-threatening hurricane winds, Felt gen said.
Irma could maintain hurricane strengths into Georgia on Monday, forecasts show.
Emergency management officials said they were concerned about a trend of people who evacuated their homes opting to go back home now that Irma’s track has veered toward the Gulf Coast.
Brevard County Communications Director Don Walker said, some people left one of the county’s 21 designated hurricane shelters, and asked if they could return, if necessary.
“It’s still going to be a dangerous situation,” Walker said. “Don’t make a dumb decision. Stay put until the all-clear is issued by emergency officials.” That will likely would be Monday afternoon, at the earliest.
Florida Power and Light expects about6 million people will be affected by the storm.
Broward County also issued a 4 p.m. curfew, asking people to stay off the roads.
Irma’s wild we a ther even spawned a small tornado around 5 p.m., the National Weather Service confirmed.
Videos and photos captured im- ages of the twister on the ground in Oakland Park, about five miles north of Fort Lauderdale.
The storm has already killed at least 25 people since roaring out of the open Atlantic and chewing through a string of Caribbean islands.
Scott said 54,000 people had already taken refuge in the more than 320 shelters located in every county outside the highly vulnerable Keys.
As of 11 p.m. ET Saturday, Irma had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm’ s center was located 90 miles southeast of Key West and moving northwest at 6mph.
The hurricane is forecast to regain strength and will reach the Florida Keys as a Category 4hurricane Sunday morning, with winds of 140 mph.
When the 300-mile wide storm roars ashore, itwill act like a giant buzzsaw as it plows up the state’s west coast Sunday into Monday, battering cities such as Key West, Naples, Fort Myers, Sarasota, and the Tampa-St. Pete area with hurricane-force winds, torrential rain, and devastating storm-surge inundation.