Manatee County under state of emergency as Irma aims for Florida

After more than an hour of discussion, the Manatee County Commission declared a local state of emergency Wednesday, the first necessary step before opening shelters or ordering evacuations to prepare for Hurricane Irma.

Also, the Manatee County School District announced it would hold classes on Thursday, but that there would be no school on Friday. Starting Thursday afternoon, the district would begin preparing its campuses to serve as storm shelters.

At noon Thursday, Manatee County government offices will be closing and will not reopen until some time next week after the threat of Irma passes, County Administrator Ed Hunzeker announced Wednesday afternoon during a news conference. The closure will include the Property Appraiser’s and Supervisor of Elections offices.

The Manatee County Judicial Center and Clerk of the Courts will be closed Friday.

“There is some forecast uncertainty remaining in Irma,” Emergency Management Chief Sherilyn Burris said. “Although the track has shifted over to the east, the storm is very large and dangerous, so we are not really out of the woods, although the storm is not predicted to make landfall here at this point.”

The National Hurricane Center’s 8 p.m. Wednesday advisory showed Irma moving west-northwest at 16 mph, and it was 50 miles north of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Irma, with sustained winds of 185 mph and a central pressure of 914 mb, is forecast to be near the South Florida coast Sunday morning.

No evacuation orders have been issued yet for Manatee County. That decision could be made Thursday morning, according to Burris.

The county is opening the Fort Hamer Bridge, which was scheduled to open to traffic on Sept. 23, temporarily at 6 a.m. on Friday to accommodate traffic related to the storm. The bridge is safe for vehicle traffic, according to Public Works Director Ron Schulhofer, and it will close at 8 p.m. Tuesday to complete the cosmetic work left in the project.

The county commission voted 5-0, with commissioners Betsy Benac and Priscilla Trace absent, to establish the state of emergency. Commissioner Steve Jonsson participated in the meeting via telephone.

Commissioners asked several questions and voiced concerns over traffic volume should evacuations be ordered and potential flooding. Robert Smith, Public Safety Director, said traffic was already factored in to their evacuation plans.

At their meeting, county commissioners learned that 10 to 15 inches of rain could fall on the state, and the storm surge for Manatee County could be as much as 9 feet. As a result, evacuations in zone A, along waterfront and nearby areas of the county, could start Friday morning.

However, the size of the population in zone A — 53,574 — exceeds the capacity of the county’s 24 official shelters, 35,425. Add the residents who live in mobile homes, and the evacuation order could affect more than 100,000 people, officials said. The evacuation of zone A could take between 10 and 17 hours.

Many evacuees are expected to take shelter with family or friends or in hotels and motels.

Should there be an overflow, the county is in close contact with regional partners to borrow shelters from them as well, Burris said.

Smith told commissioners Wednesday morning there was still too much uncertainty about the storm’s path to say exactly when evacuations could be ordered.

“We’re anticipating starting evacuations Friday morning. We’ll make notification for those who need to leave long before that,” Smith said.

Special needs shelters are already being coordinated, he said.

Burris said one of the challenges will be that tropical storm-force winds will come before the hurricane makes landfall, if it does.

“The problem with the storm, of course, even if it affects the east coast, we could still see surge,” Burris said.

“Because people have seen what Houston looks like under water, there is a little bit of fear and people are going to evacuate even if they’re not told to do so, so we’re making adjustments to our plans because of that to increase our capability as well,” Burris said.

The decision to evacuate comes after careful consideration, Burris noted, because of surrounding counties that may be evacuating.

“It is not a knee-jerk reaction to issue an evacuation order. By all means we want people to be safe and we only issue an order if we deem it’s unsafe for those folks to stay,” Burris said.

The Manatee County Emergency Operations Center at 2101 47th Terrace E., Bradenton, is now fully activated, as of Wednesday morning.

“We can replace things, but we can’t replace people,” Commissioner Robin DiSabatino said, urging county residents to be prepared and to evacuate if told to do so.

“You have commissioners up here that are looking at evacuating. The citizens, you, should look at that as well. There’s no need to stay here with a possible Category 5 hurricane coming at us. Let’s be reasonable here, if you have any way to go, go. And go now,” DiSabatino said.

Officials said Tuesday there are no plans yet for an evacuation or shelter openings. However, Manatee County schools will be closed Friday so officials can prepare 24 schools to become shelters should they be needed.

No official decisions have been made regarding schools for next week.

County officials urged residents to take the storm seriously and watch weather and media reports for the latest information.

Manatee County residents can call the Citizens Information Center at 941-749-3547 with questions or to report issues related to Hurricane Irma.

Updates can also be found on Manatee County’s social media pages, including Facebook at www.facebook.com/manatee.county.fl and on Twitter, @ManateeGov, as well as the Manatee County Emergency Management pages at www.facebook.com/ManateeCountyEmergencyManagement and Twitter @MCGPublicSafety.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott activated the State Emergency Operations Center to a level one, for full-scale, 24-hour activation and activated 100 members of the Florida Air and Army National Guard. All 7,000 National Guard members will report for duty Friday morning.

President Donald Trump declared a pre-landfall state of emergency Tuesday in order to free up federal funds ahead of Irma for emergency protective measures, at Scott’s request.

Monroe County and the Florida Keys started mandatory evacuations Wednesday morning.

This story was originally published September 6, 2017 at 9:20 AM with the headline "Manatee County under state of emergency as Irma aims for Florida."