TOWSON, Maryland, Thursday, September 6, 2017 - All over Florida, home owners and other residents are packing up and heading north. The Governor, Rick Scott, was unusually frank when addressing an afternoon press conference on Thursday. If you are told to evacuate, Scott said, get out.
Scott continued with precise details about what the state is doing to make it possible to evacuate almost the whole state.
National Guardsmen are being called up in huge numbers, and some of them will be making it possible for Florida police officers to get out on the highways to keep traffic moving.
The Florida Keys should be all but a ghost town by Saturday evening. Large areas of Miami and Miami Beach are also being evacuated. Massive traffic jams are expected along major north bound roads. Governor Scott has arranged with Federal Authorities to have massive amounts of gasoline shipped into the state immediately. Normally, such massive importing would be frowned on, but in this case the need is very real.
Hurricane Irma might be about to head up the Florida Atlantic Coast in a more pronounced way then forecasters are currently willing to say, but even if it does, the entire state of Florida is going to get whacked, and whacked "real good." Irma is a monster storm. Winds are up near 185 miles per hour, far stronger than Harvey was when it stormed into Texas and caused so much destruction just two weeks ago. About the only certifiable good news is that the storm will not replicate Harvey's tact of stalling over populated areas, guaranteeing that rain totals will be off the chart. No one thinks Irma will do that.
President Trump said many of his FEMA people have left Texas and are now deployed in Florida. He said the Federal Government is doing all it can to have emergency supplies and personnel ready to hit the ground the minute the storm even looks like it is about to lift.
The Naples Daily News ran this banner headline in today's editions, "Hurricane Irma could create one of the largest mass evacuations in U.S. history." The paper quoted Governor Scott as saying, "Do not sit and wait for this storm to come. Get out now."
A predominant storm track according to many TV weather people has the storm going right up the middle of Florida, south to north. This would be a worse case scenario. I do not believe it will happen exactly like that. But I also believe that the storm is so bloody big - and it is really really big and strong, and is approaching the state over very warm tropical water - that the precautions being advised by the Governor are at least prudent and in a very real sense they are absolutely necessary.
If you are in Florida and don't take cover by tomorrow, you are taking your life in your hands. That is insanity. Do not do this. Like Governor Scott says, get out now.
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