Floridians Forget Calm Before Storm--Get Busy Now!

If you live on the West Coast of Florida, get out!

Tracking Irma City by City

weather.com
Meteorologist Ari Sarsalari looks a the specific cities in Florida where Irma will have the worst impacts. 

The Worst-Case Hurricane Irma Scenarios For Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville
Tampa Bay

The center of Hurricane Irma's forecast path, the most likely forecast track, now introduces the chance of the eyewall of Irma raking across part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg metro area.

Fortunately, it looks like Irma won't be the worst-case scenario for storm surge that area residents fear.

For that to happen, the center would have to track in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, then make landfall north of Pinellas County. This would not only bring destructive eyewall winds to much of the metro area, but would also drive a catastrophic storm surge into Tampa Bay.

The so-called Tarpon Springs Hurricane made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane in October 1921. According to an NWS model simulation, this hurricane likely drove a 9 to 11-foot surge into Hillsborough Bay, including downtown Tampa, as well as Old Tampa Bay.

At the time, it was the most destructive hurricane in the region since an 1848.

Hurricane Irma now Category 4, shifts west creating 'very dangerous situation' for SW Florida
ABC News
By MORGAN WINSOR JULIA JACOBO DAVID CAPLAN
Sep 9, 2017

Just hours after Hurricane Irma strengthened Friday night to a Category 5 storm as it made landfall on Cuba, the monster storm went back to a Category 4 storm around 5 a.m. Saturday, the National Hurricane Center announced.

Its maximum sustained winds decreased to 155 mph, but the storm remains strong as it moves closer to South Florida at a speed of 12 mph. As of 5 a.m., it was 245 miles southeast of Miami. Just three hours earlier, it was 275 miles south-southeast of the city.

The storm's track has shifted slightly to the west, creating a "very, very dangerous situation for western Florida," says ABC News meteorologist Daniel Manzo. Major hurricane conditions will slam communities on Florida's west coast, including Naples and Fort Myers, he added. Landfall may also occur as far north as Tampa as a strong Category 3 hurricane.
read more here

If you live in a mobile home, get out!

Hurricane Irma: Thousands living in S. Florida mobile homes face greater threat

Rodrigo Felipe's home is an old trailer he shares with five others in Immokalee, directly in Hurricane Irma's predicted path up the middle of Florida.

He wants to get out of the storm's way, but he doesn’t have a car or money to evacuate. Like tens of thousands of residents in Irma's way who live in mobile homes that likely can't withstand the storm's force, Felipe sought shelter elsewhere.

Many of Florida's mobile home residents are immigrants, including those who are undocumented. Felipe, a farmworker from Guatemala, worries that he and others who are undocumented won't have a place to go.

“I don’t know where we are going because we don’t have documents,” he said. 

If you can't get out, get busy now!

For mobile homes, get out of them and get to a friend's house or shelter. 

Get a backpack for everyone ready. 

Find a ladder to get to your roof.

Make a check list of what you have to have.

Print a list of shelters with how to get there and put it in a plastic bag. You can't read it if it gets wet. You may not have cell service, so you need to do some things the old fashion way.

Charge cell phones!

*IDs, birth certificates, policy numbers or at least put phone numbers into your cell phone for everyone you have to notify besides family and friends.

**banks **pharmacy **insurance company 

*Medicine, put them in plastic bags to protect them.
*Cell phone chargers for when you get to a power supply. Put them in a plastic bag. Keep in mind that not all chargers will fit yours.
*Water bottles, pre-freeze a few before you pack them and have to head to the roof. 
*Get pool floats blown up and attach a rope in case someone falls off. They can also help if you have dogs that can't get to the roof.
*Find anything that will float and know where it is.

Pick an area of your home to hide in like an interior closet. Put flashlights, water and battery operated radio along anything you can put against a door like a mattress.

Here is an official list

Basic Disaster Supplies Kit

To assemble your kit, store items in airtight plastic bags and put your entire disaster supplies kit in one or two easy-to-carry containers such as plastic bins or a duffel bag.

A basic emergency supply kit could include the following recommended items:

• Water - one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days, for drinking and sanitation
• Food - at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food
• Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert
• Flashlight
• First aid kit
• Extra batteries
• Whistle to signal for help
• Dust mask to help filter contaminated air and plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter-in-place
• Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation
• Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities
• Manual can opener for food
• Local maps
• Cell phone with chargers and a backup battery