5 storm they would not get up from the couch. they wouldn t leave their homes. what s your message to folks that don t really take a category 3 like this seriously? the message is, you know, there is some complacency with floridians, as you mentioned, and these storms are unpredictable. that cone of uncertainty is just that, it s uncertain. it s up to mother nature to where are the storms going to hit and to what intensity it s going to hit. so we need to prepare for a major category 3 hurricane to hit the bay area and, you know, execute those plans and reach out to the resources that we have available locally. and, rob, for those who have not grown up in florida or who are not as familiar with hurricanes, paint a picture for us. what happens when a category 3 hurricane makes landfall and hits florida? so the biggest life threat in a hurricane event is those storm surge. so our county administration along with emergency management
you do not need to leave the state of florida. you basically need to go to higher ground. almost every instance you can go tens of miles to a shelter, to a hotel, to a friend s house, whatever works for you, and you will be able to ride out the storm. the key is to not be in those areas that are going to be hit with big-time storm surge and that are going to potentially have life-threatening situations. so tens of miles, not necessarily need hundreds of miles, and the more people that do a more limited evacuation, more local evacuation, you re not going to have the highways and the roads clogged so it s not necessary to try to outrun the storm, just get to higher ground, get in a structure that is going to be able to handle the hurricane, ride it out and you will be able we ve been listening to florida governor ron desantis as the state prepares for idalia saying that there will be evacuation orders, telling floridians to prepare
is working diligently to decide next steps and we re going to protect our residents against that storm surge. the wind event is something that you shelter for and you prepare for an electrical interruption if that s the case afterwards. so if you are, you know, new to the area, go to our local resources and see where you are in the evacuation, if that s ordered. there has not been an order for anything yet, but, you know, just use the resources we have and start executing your plan. so important to point out, as you did, rob, about the cone of uncertainty. last year in the same area they were expecting hurricane ian, it wound up hitting further south and causing all sorts of devastation, rob herrin, we will be in contact. thanks so much. thank you. and coming up for us, covid cases in the u.s. are rising, but should you worry about catching the virus? why experts say there are still good reasons not to treat it casually. we will explain when we come