In Targeted Tampa Bay the Realization of Danger Takes Hold

(Bloomberg) -- In Tampa, which hasn’t been hammered by a major hurricane in almost a century, workers at the Embassy Suites near the airport were trying to stave off panic. Around noon, they’d received orders to close and evacuate after forecasters concluded that Irma, one of the mightiest cyclones ever to hit the Atlantic, was headed their way.

All guests had to go. The lobby was packed with frantic people trying to find a new place to call temporary home. About 80 percent were storm refugees who had fled South Florida, but this morning the storm had pursued them, shifting to the west, on track to rake the city late Sunday or early Monday.

Jose Rodriguez, 36, stood in the lobby, distraught. He’d just arrived late Friday night from the Keys, part of a three-family caravan, with six kids and six adults. They unpacked, relieved to be in a safe place, only to wake up and be forced to pack again. They planned to head to Orlando, but that plan might not last. They’d just have to head where Irma appeared not to be heading, said Rodriguez, as his daughter tugged at his hand, pleading to leave.

“When you have kids, the worst thing you have is uncertainty,” he said. “When your kids are asking you where you’re going and what’s next and you can’t answer, it’s heartbreaking.”

Before Saturday, the focus of fear had been Miami, but then forecasters published tracks showing Hurricane Irma striking the west coast of the state. Now, Irma, with top winds of 125 miles (201 kilometers) per hour, is expected to hit the Florida Keys on Sunday morning before heading up the state’s southwestern coast. The Category 3 storm is expected to regain strength. Officials have placed hundreds of thousands of people in the 3-million resident Tampa area under mandatory evacuation orders.

“We have not been hit by a hurricane in over 90 years, so the odds have been against us increasingly, and we knew that day would come,” Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. "Once it started to make that turn west, we really amped this up. So we’re prepared, plans are in place, the assets are deployed, the manpower is all in.”

Depicting a Deluge

As the evacuation orders multiplied, the repercussions were felt hundreds of miles away. South Carolina was preparing to open shelters not only for its own citizens, but expected throngs of Georgians and Floridians, according to a news release from Governor Henry McMaster.

As Irma roars up Florida’s west coast, it’s expected to push up to 15 feet of water inland, known as storm surge, said Florida Governor Rick Scott. "Fifteen feet above ground level,” Scott said at a news conference in Winter Park. “Think about that. Fifteen feet is deadly and will cover your house.”

By the time Irma gets to Tampa, the storm surge is forecast to be five to eight feet, pushing a wall of water into a city built around waterways. Tom Iovino, the spokesman for nearby Manatee County’s Office of Emergency Management, said greater Tampa is on track to absorb its first direct blow from a hurricane since 1921, when it had about 50,000 inhabitants. 

"This could be the one nobody ever wanted to see," Iovino said. 

Mike Merrill, administrator of Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, said at a televised briefing that the county had already had more than 9,200 people in its 17 emergency shelters.

County officials said they were resigned to a disaster that would touch them personally.

“You better run from this water, because if that storm surge hits six to nine feet, I know I’m going to have six feet in my house,” said Commissioner Sandra L. Murman. “Please heed the warnings.”

Similar apprehension extended the length of the west coast, a region of sugar-white beaches, gentle gulf waters and a population bolstered by retirees from across the country.

In Fort Myers, about 125 miles south of Tampa, Laurye Omelia watched as Hurricane Irma cut a path across the Caribbean, sparing condos she owns in the Turks and Caicos Islands from significant damage. Now, with the monster storm headed straight for her, she’s evacuating.

“I’ve gone through Andrew and others, but this is far different in terms of the level of tension and general fear that’s been brought to the general public,” said Omelia, who retired last year with her husband and two goldendoodle dogs to a waterfront home in the Iona neighborhood. She closed up the house and went to her sister’s home farther inland.

Last Crumbs

Inside the Publix grocery store near the Tampa airport, a steady flow of people picked over almost bare shelves for bread about 30 minutes before its noon closing. Some were visibly upset, while others cracked jokes.

Eric Troil and his wife Valerie, both 48, said they weren’t worried. They’d spent the past few days making ice and stocking up on water and food

“At this point you can only bunker down and ride it out,” said Eric Troil. “There’s only so much you can do.”

On the city’s Riverwalk, which is lined with shops, restaurants, condos and marinas, Jason Hurley, 37, decided to take a bike ride. He’d been through hurricanes, though nothing like this. But he figured the windows of his high-rise condo are strong enough to endure Irma. He was baffled about how deserted the Riverwalk was.

“I’m riding around seeing scenery, just to see what it’s like,” Hurley said. “It’s crazy when you look at this and say this will be under water.”

--With assistance from Ezra Fieser Erik Schatzker and Nathan Crooks

To contact the reporters on this story: Bailey Lipschultz in New York at blipschultz@bloomberg.net, Terrence Dopp in Washington at tdopp@bloomberg.net, Michael Smith in Santiago at mssmith@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flynn McRoberts at fmcroberts1@bloomberg.net, Stephen Merelman