The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has a warning to Florida residents who are in the destructive path of Hurricane Irma and have been ordered to evacuate: Get out now.
Chief Brock Long spoke at FEMA headquarters in Washington on Friday. Long said no one in Florida has experienced a storm with the intensity of what’s now bearing down on the state. He said there is “a lot of certainty in this forecast” showing Irma making landfall somewhere in Florida this weekend, and the resulting winds and storm surge will be devastating.
Long said those in low-lying areas who’ve been told to evacuate “need to get out and heed the warning.”
“Hurricane Irma continues to be a threat that is going to devastate the United States in either Florida or some of the southeastern states,” he said. He warned that parts of Florida would be out of electricity for days if not longer and that more than 100,000 people may need shelter.
More than 8,000 FEMA staff have been deployed to prepare for Irma and help with the continuing recovery effort from Hurricane Harvey, which caused massive flooding in southeastern Texas last week.
When Long was asked about conservative Rush Limbaugh’s suggestion that Hurricane Irma is fake news, he replied:
“The nation has only seen three Category 5 storms since 1851. I guarantee you that I don’t know anyone in Florida that is going to experience what is about to hit South Florida.
“They need to get out and listen.”
Mandatory evacuation orders started earlier this week in Florida as Irma is expected to make landfall late Saturday evening or early Sunday.
The storm has been downgraded to a Category 4 storm but has already battered the Caribbean Islands leaving at least 11 people dead and thousands without homes.