The storm -- called "extremely dangerous" by the National Hurricane Center (http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/hurricane-season.htm) (NHC) -- currently has sustained winds of 180 mph and even higher gusts..
On Wednesday evening, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez declared mandatory evacuations in the county's barrier islands, including Miami Beach, Coconut Grove and much of Coral Gables.
On "Good Morning America (http://abcnews.go.com/topics/entertainment/tv/good-morning-america.htm)" today, Scott warned that Irma could be worse than Hurricane Andrew, which devastated the Sunshine State 25 years ago.
Scott also said the state needs more volunteers, estimating the need for 17,000 volunteers state-wide.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi announced concerns about price gouging in the state as residents prepare for the storm.
Bondi's office has processed more than 500 complaints of price gouging and still has more than 1,000 complaints to go, she said. Most of the complaints are coming from South Florida and are having to do with the prices of food, water and ice, Bondi said.
The attorney general said the state's residents are particularly susceptible to price gouging because of its large senior population.
Hundreds of thousands of Floridians have been ordered to evacuate: Mandatory evacuations have already been ordered for Monroe County, which includes the Florida Keys, and coastal parts of Broward County and Miami-Dade County..
"I want everybody to understand the importance of this. This is bigger than Andrew," Scott said Wednesday in an interview from Tallahassee with ABC News' "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts. "This could be worse (http://abcnews.go.com/US/hurricane-irma-worse-hurricane-andrew-florida-gov-rick/story?id=49647730)."
(http://a.abcnews.com/images/Technology/irma-st-martin-rt1-ml-170907_mn_4x3t_384.jpg) (http://abcnews.go.com/US/hurricane-irma-continues-advance-florida-category-storm/story?id=49673384#)SLIDESHOW: Photos: Hurricane Irma threatens Florida (http://abcnews.go.com/US/hurricane-irma-continues-advance-florida-category-storm/story?id=49673384#)more + (http://abcnews.go.com/US/hurricane-irma-continues-advance-florida-category-storm/story?id=49673384#)
At a press conference Thursday, Scott said Irma could bring "life threatening" damage to Florida and he urged residents on the state's east and west coast to be prepared to evacuate and to heed warnings from local officials, saying a storm surge could bring water levels up to 10 feet above ground.
"This could impact any part of our state," Scott told reporters. "We'll be doing evacuations, but everybody's got to listen."
Scott said he expects additional evacuation orders will be given once the storm gets closer.
Mandatory evacuations have already been ordered for parts of several Florida counties, including Brevard County, Broward County, Lee County, Martin County, Monroe County, Miami-Dade County and Palm Beach County. Most of the mandatory evacuation zones were issued for barrier islands, coastal areas and for those living in mobile homes.
As of Thursday afternoon, about 650,000 people had been asked to evacuate Miami-Dade County alone, the southeastern-most county on the U.S. mainland with more than 2.7 million residents.
Here's what they were saying a few days ago while Harvey was going on. No one is going to care about this after tomorrow because the Irma news will be too huge.
[https://www.youtube.com/embed/VVhfmdbPA0I?fs=1&start=].
Hurricane Harvey is now "old news"..
Dunno how for how many hours they've been acting on reshuffled priorities, but ABC Radio, at least as carried in central Florida, led its news at 24:00/00:00 EDT with the approach of Hurricane Irma to Florida, and Gov. Scott's mandated closing of state offices and public schools (from kindergrtens to universities) effective Friday (09-08).
The [State-of-Florida] authorities are simply telling them one thing: GET OUT. For some, it's already too late.
Weird !Myrna, Hurricane Irma struck the Leeward Islands (the islands east of Puerto Rico) and moved northwest to Florida. It was never near Houston.
Is Irma turning and coming back!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jwq2aQXK1E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jwq2aQXK1E (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jwq2aQXK1E)
.Where do I apply? Ohh wait... I'm not good at keeping secrets. :laugh1:(https://s17-us2.ixquick.com/cgi-bin/serveimage?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.weathernationtv.com%2Fapp%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F09%2Fharvey-728x408.jpg&sp=08523dc14726a0986f1d0ac3210d3ff0).Imagine the great effort all over the world to depict the earth as being a sphere..There must be armies of workers deliberately dedicated to keeping the truth from public view..
Hurricane Irma Energy Soars over Houston after a 5000 mile Journey.But Hurricane Irma, having since dissipated, went north. When it made landfall in the US, it went to Florida and then went north. Its projections were also all north. It was coming northwest from the Caribbean, which is Florida.
Video
https://youtu.be/bnHs-qgJ18Y