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All tourists told to evacuate Florida Keys ahead of Hurricane Irma
Florida Keys has issued a mandatory evacuation order for all tourists in the area.
Slow moving Hurricane Irma – now an ominous Category 5 storm – is still a few days away but officials are taking no chances.
The evacuation order for all visitors staying in Munroe County begins from first light Wednesday.
That will be followed by a mandatory order for the approximately 80,000 residents to leave by Thursday.
To facilitate that, all toll roads will be free.
"We’re emphatically telling people you must evacuate, you cannot afford to stay on an island with a Category 5 hurricane coming at you," said Monroe County emergency operations center director Martin Senterfitt.
The majority of the island chain is just a few feet above sea level, much less than expected storm surges if Irma makes a direct hit.
Fears have also spread north to Miami.
Even though Irma’s exact path is still unknown, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez urged residents to start planning now.
"This hurricane is far too powerful, poses far too great a threat, for us to delay actions any further," Gimenez said at a news conference yesterday.
"I would rather inconvenience our residents on this occasion than suffer any unnecessary loss of life if in fact we are hit by Hurricane Irma. It is still too early to know if we will take a direct hit."
Irma is being described by the National Hurricane Center as one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic whipping up ‘large and destructive waves.’
Florida Gov. Rick Scott said mass evacuations may even be required on the Florida mainland and all 7,000 members of the Florida National Guard will report for duty from Friday.
Before it reaches the Sunshine State, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas and Cuba stand in its likely path.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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