Manatee County and all of Florida under state of emergency as Hurricane Dorian approaches

While keeping an eye on the forecast, local officials are taking further steps to prepare their residents for Hurricane Dorian.

Manatee County commissioners declared a local state of emergency Friday, after emergency planners outlined their vision for the coming days. They urged locals to prepare whenever possible, but to leave resources — including sandbags and shelters — for those who truly need them.

The declaration allows county government staff to perform any emergency actions needed during the storm.

“My second message is not to panic,” said Jake Saur, the county’s acting public safety director. “Moving forward, our message is going to be pretty clear, and that is to get your plan in place.”

Saur described a slow, long-lasting storm that’s expected to bring heavy rainfall as soon as Sunday. While the storm is currently expected to impact the center or east coast of Florida, its trajectory could always change.

“If it stays going up the spine or more towards the east coast, we have no worries about surge,” he said. “However, if you see this latest model here, it could continue going west, right over us, and then we’ll have to worry about surge in the future.”

Manatee plans to open four general shelters, including three that are pet friendly, along with one special needs shelter, which is also expected to be pet friendly, said Steve Litschauer, the emergency management chief.

The shelters are currently expected to open on Sunday, but the official locations and times were unknown as of Friday morning.

“As our message has been for a long time, we encourage people to go to friends, family, hotels out of the area,” Litschauer said. “It’s better to evacuate, if they have to evacuate, with someone they know rather than a shelter.”

Litschauer also raised the specter of memories from Hurricane Irma in September 2017, outlining the possible impact of Dorian on certain communities.

“We’re looking at winds either equal to or greater than what we saw with Irma, so with those winds we’re concerned about the mobile homes, manufactured homes and RVs, because of their construction,” he said.

The city of Palmetto declared a state of emergency at noon on Friday, and the city of Bradenton declared its own state of emergency in the morning, authorizing the mayor, vice mayor, public works director, fire chief and police chief to take whatever steps are necessary to carry out emergency provisions.

About 12:30 p.m., President Donald Trump declared an emergency in the state of Florida. The president ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local efforts responding to Dorian.

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, who had joined other Florida representatives in asking for a federal declaration, said he spoke with the governor and officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“Southwest Florida is not out of the woods yet -- that’s the message I just received from the FEMA director regarding Hurricane Dorian as Florida’s emergency disaster request was approved by President Trump for all 67 Florida counties,” Buchanan said in a statement. “I was also told that Southwest Florida -- Sarasota, Manatee and Hillsborough counties -- needs to be prepared for heavy rain, flooding and wind as the storm’s pathway remains unpredictable.”

City of Anna Maria commissioners also recently passed an emergency resolution allowing Mayor Dan Murphy to establish curfews, prohibit sale or distribution of alcohol, declare certain areas “off limits,” establish shelters, make available temporary emergency housing, among other responsibilities during a state of emergency.

The School District of Manatee County has not yet made a decision on whether classes will resume as scheduled Tuesday. That decision will likely come over the weekend and will depend on the circumstances of the storm, said district spokesman Mike Barber.

The storm is forecast to drop several inches of rain and could bring flooding to the area.

This story was originally published August 30, 2019 at 9:50 AM.