Hurricane Irma Florida Evacuation Map, Procedures: Schools, Offices Closed; Shelters Being Set Up as Evacuation Orders Come In
Now deemed as one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic, Irma is becoming more powerful as it heads toward the Caribbean. It is now a Category 5 storm moving 180 miles per hour.
Florida is in its path, with the National Hurricane Center (NHC) warning of an "increasing chance of seeing some impacts from Irma in the Florida Peninsula and the Florida Keys later this week and this weekend."
This prompted Florida governor Rick Scott to declare a state of emergency for the entire state, deploying 7,000 guard members for Friday. He warned citizens to brace themselves and stock up water, food, medicine, batteries and other necessities. He said, per CNN:
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Florida is known for preparing and doing a great job with disasters. We have no idea what's in store. We'll have to pray for the best. The hope would be this thing will dissipate and just go out into the Atlantic, but we've got to prepare for the worst.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Giménez urges to deal with the threat of Hurricane Irma and take action as early as possible. With Hurricane Harvey's destruction in Texas last week, authorities are keen on making sure this will not be repeated.
Giménez said that county offices and schools will be closed on Thursday and Friday — the days Hurricane Irma is expected to hit Florida while school activities scheduled Wednesday night to Friday will be canceled.
Evacuations for special-needs residents are set to start today while others are likely to be ordered to get out of the area for the time being. Giménez also advised people to store food and water.
He said, per Washington Post:
This hurricane is far too powerful, poses far too great a threat, for us to delay actions any further. I would rather inconvenience our residents on this occasion than suffer any unnecessary loss of life if in fact we are hit by Hurricane Irma. It is still too early to know if we will take a direct hit.
Broward County is also getting ready for Hurricane Irma by setting up 43 shelters that can house up to 33,000 people. The operations will begin Friday. Like in Miami-Dade, schools and offices will be closed Thursday and Friday as well.
Monroe County has ordered mandatory evacuations for its residents as well as tourists and nonresidents as early as Wednesday morning. Animal shelters also direct citizens to evacuate their pets with Keys SPCA also getting all animals out of Keys.
With regard to the evacuation process, more than 5,000 military active duty personnel, civilians, contractors and families have received mandatory evacuation orders.
As per CNN, the Navy aircraft will move inland from Jacksonville and Mayport, Florida with submarines evacuated from Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia.
