‘Wake up and pay attention!’: Stark warnings as ‘nuclear’ Hurricane Irma barrels toward Florida prompting mandatory evacuations, gas shortages and threats to two waterfront reactors
Parts of Miami closest to the coast have been ordered to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Irma
The evacuation orders went into effect Thursday morning and apply to some 100,000 people
Another 25,000 people were previously ordered out of the Florida Keys on Wednesday
The hurricane is expected to hit Florida Sunday morning
Officials are worried the damage could rival what was seen in 1992 during Andrew
Locals in Florida have cleaned out grocery stores of key necessities and supplies just days before Irma is expected to make landfall
Florida Governor Rick Scott said gas and more supplies are on the way, after stores and service stations across the state started reporting shortages
By ABIGAIL MILLER
DAILYMAIL.COM
7 September 2017
Hurricane Irma will have a ‘truly devastating’ impact when it slams into southern coastal areas of the United States, the head of FEMA said on Thursday.
FEMA chief Brock Long said people in Florida and other states must heed evacuation orders as the Category Five hurricane surges towards the US after causing death and destruction in the Caribbean.
The FEMA chief said Irma would be only the fourth Category Five hurricane to hit the United States and the first since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
‘Bottom line is the majority of people along the coast have never experienced a major hurricane like this. It will be truly devastating,’ he told CNN.
‘The entire southeastern United States better wake up and pay attention,’ he added.
Evacuations have already started in the Florida Keys and parts of Miami, and officials say residents should be ready for more in the coming days.
Meanwhile, the location of two nuclear plants in the line of the storm are raising fears of a fallout similar to the Fukushima disaster. While the Turkey Point and St. Lucie power plants are right on the water, officials say they are designed to withstand hurricane-force winds and flooding.
By Thursday morning, the center of the storm was about 110 miles (180 kilometers) north of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and was moving west-northwest near 17 mph (28 kph).
The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted Irma would remain at Category 4 or 5 for the next day or two as passes just to the north of the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Thursday, nears the Turks & Caicos and parts of the Bahamas by Thursday night and skirts Cuba on Friday night into Saturday.
It will then likely head north toward Florida, where people were rushing to board up homes, fill cars with gasoline and find a route to safety.
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