Irma bears down on Florida; more than 5M told to flee coast
Irma trained its sights on Florida and officials warned more than 5 million people that time was running out Friday and ordered them to evacuate ahead of the deadly hurricane as it followed a path that could take it from one end of the state to the other.
By late Friday, Irma had regained Category 5 strength with winds of 160 mph (260 kph). Forecasters expect the storm to be near the Florida Keys on Sunday morning and approach the state's southwest coast by that afternoon.
Forecasters adjusted the storm's potential track more toward the west coast of Florida, away from the Miami metropolitan area of 6 million people, meaning "a less costly, a less deadly storm," University of Miami researcher Brian McNoldy said.
Nevertheless, forecasters warned that its hurricane-force winds were so wide they could reach from coast to coast, testing the nation's third-largest state, which has undergone rapid development and more stringent hurricane-proof building codes in the last decade or so.
"This is a storm that will kill you if you don't get out of the way," National Hurricane Center meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said. "Everybody's going to feel this one."
Irma killed at least 20 people in the Caribbean and left thousands homeless as it devastated small resort islands known for their warm, turquoise water.
In Florida, gas shortages and gridlock plagued the evacuations, turning normally simple trips into tests of will. Parts of interstates 75 and 95 north were bumper-to-bumper, while very few cars drove in the southbound lanes.
In one of the country's largest evacuations, about 5.6 million people in Florida — more than one-quarter of the state's population — were ordered to evacuate and another 540,000 were told to leave the Georgia coast. Authorities opened hundreds of shelters for people who did not leave. Hotels as far away as Atlanta filled up with evacuees.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott said people fleeing could drive slowly in the shoulder lane on highways. He hasn't reversed the southbound lanes because he said they were needed to deliver gas and supplies.
"If you are planning to leave and do not leave tonight, you will have to ride out this extremely dangerous storm at your own risk," Scott said.
CoreLogic, a consultant to insurers, estimated that almost 8.5 million Florida homes or commercial properties were at extreme, very high or high risk of wind damage from Irma.
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I'm sure Rick Scott doesn't have a whole lot of fans around here, but it looks to me like he has been just about as on top of this as anyone possibly could be. He declared a state-wide state of emergency and began ordering evacuations four days ago and it looks like the efforts to provide everything possible to facilitate evacuations and provide shelters has had really good co-ordination at both the state and local levels. He also seems to be doing a really good job of communicating regularly to the public what's going on, what resources are available, and how to take advantage of them.
All of this is no small feat, when you consider not just the enormity of the storm, but also the shifting target zones.
