Onshore this way, wolf. The storm will track up here. Flooding here, wind damage here and here and then flooding from this side, too. So because were going to move it right up and its as big as the state, if not wider, with Hurricane Force winds, everyone will see damage. I dont think there will be any True Community that doesnt lose shingles maybe a window. Be very careful when tried to get in or out of your house if you are staying, because when the wind blows those doors slam shut. And let me tell you, ive seen it. And peoples fingers get caught in the doors. Wind howling through it. You dont expect it, bam, in trouble. Try to go to the hospital and the winds blowing 100. Please, please, be careful here and have some cash. Today is the day to get cash. When the wind blows, power lines go down, and also the le electricity down, credit cards dont work. When you need something, you need cash. The storm comes around 2 00 tomorrow afternoon. Miami finally see 50 mileperhour wind gusts. But look at this white ball. Thats 100 Miles Per Hour or greater over the entire keys and then over the everglades and then because the evergrades isnt really land, its water, it gets bigger. Gets bigger again. We have winds 100 Miles Per Hour all the way across the florida peninsula tomorrow afternoon. And into sunday afternoon. So this is going to be sunday afternoon. This is going to be a big event for everyone onshore flow up and down the east coast. Onshore flow on the west coast causing flooding there and you know, 16 Million People will see Hurricane Force gusts. How many people are going to lose power . Wolf, 2 million, 3 million, 4 Million People without power just by power lines and trees and limbs down alone. Going to take a long time to put that all back up let alone the possible loss of life if you do the wrong things and stay in the keys or in places where officials told you to leave. That explains, chad, why there are all of these enormous number of evacuations in florida from the west coast, st. Petersburg, to the east coast, in West Palm Beach and south from there. Is there any part of florida, really, thats going to escape this . No. Although i will tell you that where we were yesterday with the storm somewhere in here, which is worstcase scenario for miami, west palm and hollanddale and jupiter and all this. Over here a little farther, now the east coast slightly less. Probably 20 Miles Per Hour less here, but now 20 Miles Per Hour more here. So we have shifted the wind toward naples, pinellas and fort myers, getting 20 Miles Per Hour grauter than you would have received yesterday with the track that we had yesterday. It will still rain. It wont be a rain or flood event. This is a wind and also the surge event for you, and i believe the eye is going to be very, very close to the marathon airport, key colony beach. Just south of grassy key and duck key, and thats going to push the water north of there to surge, key largo, islamorada and points northward. Push all the water eventually over make surprise into key biscayne. Thats when you flood downtown miami and looks like six feet of water will do a lot of damage in that town which is at sea level. Yes. Certainly will. Chad, stand by. West palm beach, florida, certainly one. Areas under mandatory evacuation now. Just under 1. 5 Million People live in the county. And brian todd, cnn, is on the scene. In West Palm Beach across the water over there from palm beach. How is the evacuation process going . Reporter well, wolf, a complicated process, and very anxious process. Well show you what it means physically to see all this. Trying to get people off the barrier island. Thats palm beach right there. Low lying. Mobile homes there. A lot of vulnerable population trying to get them across the bridges and here to West Palm Beach, a slightly Higher Elevation where we are and get inland into general population shelters if they can get them. The mayor of West Palm Beach says they want to try to get people off the roads by tomorrow. That mandatory evacuation for palm beach started this morning at 10 00 a. M. Three hours ago, about. In parts of West Palm Beach, wolf, theyre still adhering to volunteer evacuations but also parts of west palm, they are instituting some mandatory evacuations in some lowlying areas. Storm surge will happen here. Five to ten feet. Im only standing five feet above the surface in the intercoastal waterway. Wash up here, inundate. Talking five to ten feet above this level you see here, plus wave activity on top of that inundating here. If it indoundates here, certain it will over there. Another big complication, wolf, securing and protecting elderly during this evacuation process. Trying to get them off palm beach and into a special need shelter here in west palm and then elsewhere in palm beach county. A huge challenge. A lot of ederle people did not want to move. The ones that want to are not easy to move. A short time ago i talked to the coowner of an alzheimers care facility run out of a small house. Not really any bigger than these houses over here, and he has four alzheimers patients, probably move them from that facility to another of his own facilities further inland in palm beach not necessarily to a shelter. He thinks he can take care of them better himself. But hes worried. They get scared, confused. Only four of them. Youre talking about a county full of elderly people a lot need special needs. If they go to a special needs shelter, there is one probably filled to capacity. They have to bring their caregivers with them, because there is just not the personnel there to take care of the special needs of the elderly. You know, wolf, there are hundreds of thousands of elderly here in palm beach county. Certainly are and broud county, fort lauderdale, miamidade, and worried about the elderly. Well get back to you. With billions and billions expected in damage, fema will have a major role to play in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Irma. Joining us from gainesville, florida, the former administrator of the federal Emergency Management agency. Thanks for joining us. You have a lot of experience on this issue. Whats the number one priority for fema when in a monstrous storm like this is barreling down on the United States . You heard Governor Scott making sure all resources his team will need focuses on search and recue and middle east stableation as irma moves through the state. From critical supplies. Most importantly, additional search and rescue teams from across the nation. Fema was already stretched thin after Hurricane Harvey in texas and louisiana. Was there a plan in place . Is there a plan in place, for a twostorm scenario . Yes. Weve practiced and part of the reason why fema has a tenregion structure to move different regions around and handle the primary region four is focused on this. Region six, still doing harvey. A lot of search and rescue 250eteams back, retrofitting getting said for this storm. And in puerto rico, getting ready when irma threatened those places. What do authorities do to those folks who ignore the Evacuation Orders especially along the coast, in the keys, in miami beach, lets say or palm beach and say, were going to ride it out. What, if anything, can you do about that . Theres nothing illegal when it comes to that, right . Yes. Thats a decision. We want to make sure its a sound decision. Ill be blunt. We talk about storm surge. Were talking about drowning. How you die in this event, if you dont evacuate. You, your family and anybody who didnt evacuate will drown. Thats the risk, and theyll tell you at a certain point youre going to dial 911 to get rescued. Its too dangerous for teams to get out there. Theyll mark your location and as soon as conditions permit try to get to you. Ive been on too many of these, that turns into a rvry operation, not life saving because the lives were lost. This is about drowning. Thats how youre going to die in the storm surge is this bad if you dont evacuate. Why we ask people to heed evacuation, move to higher ground. You need to move inland. This is not something you want to risk or second guess, because once you go to the point where its too late, that may be your last decision. When is it too late . Based on the forecast we have now, when this hurricane is going to hit florida, when is it going to be too late . About the time we start seeing higher tropical force wind gusts start hitting. Now you run into problems particularly coming off the Barrier Islands going across the bridges, getting blown off the bridge. Generally when the Response Teams have to stop and move into their safe locations. So as we start seeing those tropics force winds arriving, your window closeds rapidly to the point its too dangerous to move and too late to get out. You and i discussed these, covered these hurricanes for many, many years. Give us perspective on irma right now. How enormous is it compared to some of the others that weve gone through . Well, for florida, they have not been through this since the 20s. Anybody whos been through andrew, unless you went through the eyewall, hurricane charlie eyewall, very small defined areas. All the hurricanes in 04 will not prepare you for irma. This is a much more dangerous statewide threat. Past experience is not going to prepare you for this. You need to heed Evacuation Orders. If youve ridden them out before, you were lucky. Dont trust your luck this time. You need to move to higher ground. Good advice. Craig, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it. And i hope all of our viewers in the danger zone right now are paying very close attention to what you are saying. This is a life and death decision that these folks have to make. Thank you very much. Thanks, wolf. Lets go to south florida. The very first place on the u. S. Mainland that will feel irmas wrath. Joining us from miami now, you couldnt see a radar. Would you even know now that a hurricane is coming your way . Reporter you absolutely wouldnt but heard the urgency in few fugates voice. The risk of storm surge and perhaps no place at greater risk when it comes to the storm surge and flooding than miami beach. I want to show you exactly why this could be so costly and deadly, wolf. Look over my shoulder. Stepping out of the way as you take a look. This is whats the draw about miami beach. Beautiful high rises. Glitzy and new. This is an area thats been booming with development and this is what potentially could make irma hurt this area so much. Thats despite the new building codes in place since hurricane andrew. Woma wolf, take a like at this historical picture from 1925. This is the same place. This is miami beach. It is a completely different area. Just since hurricane andrew. The population of miami beach has gone up 35 . Overall in central and southern florida, the population boom has meant millions more into this area since 1990. With all of these building, infrastructure change what that means, a huge wind event, more debris. Toss in that irma is going to have a huge storm surge. Weve seen all across miami beach people boarding up. They are protecting themselves, because they absolutely anticipate that there will be a massive storm surge. Despite that some people are going to say that theyre going to stay in their upper highlevel high rises. Wolf, we cannot stress more than enough. Spoken to the city today. They are urging everyone to get out of miami beach. Wolf . Certainly are. And many other places in florida as well. In miami for us, thank you. Standing by to join us, the governor of florida, rick scott. Hes telling well who refuse to leave. My interview with the governor coming up. Plus cnn is live right in the middle of the traffic gridlock thats developed as lots of folks in florida are racing to escape. And a stunning picture showing how much bigger irma is compared to the devastating andrew 25 years ago. Youre going to hear from the First Responders who are staying behind as their families leave. When you have to leave them what do you say to them . Obviously, the most difficult part. Hmm. You tell them you love them and hope you make a back. Patrick woke up with back pain. But he has work to do. So he took aleve. If hed taken tylenol, hed be stopping for more pills right now. Only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Aleve. All day strong. These make cleaning between myi love easy. Sy. Gum brand for healthy gums. Soft picks, proxabrush cleaners, flossers. Gum brand. Get back to breaking news. More than 20 Million People living in florida. Nearly everyone in the state will be affected by this monster storm. Florida governor rick scott joins us oun the phone. Governor thanks, as usual, for joining us. Looking at pictures of long lines of homestead, florida, just outside miami. These lines are people trying to get into a shelter ahead of the storm where do the evacuations stand right now . Still evacuating this part of the south and we know the storm is coming up. And evacuating other parts of the state. Just receiving tampa to go down to fort myers. An area of tampa is leaving now. We have shelters. I shut down all the schools in the entire state to add more shelters. Ive asked for volunteers. Needing more volunteers, getting more every day. Opening many shelters as is necessary and i tell everybody, you cannot wait. Youve got to if youre in an evacuation zone, get out now. If youre going to leave your home, you need to get going now, because as this gets closer its going to get harder to get where you want to go. And i care about the whole state. I love them, but we cant put First Responders in harms way to save you. So take care of your family. We all love our families and dont want to lose one family member, so do it now. Take your action now. Dont wait. We just spoke to fred fugate, former fema administrate here was rather blunt. If people ignore these Evacuation Orders from you and from other authorities, they potentially could die as a result of the storm surge. Is that the biggest fear you have . Im worried that people wont all evacuate. Feel this is the same as before. Lets put it in perspective. This is much bigger than andrew and we have storm risk we didnt have with andrew. Surge between three and ten feet. Weve got a lot of rain potentially. We could have bands of rain, but this, water accumulates and the storm surges, when they come in, they come in powerful and they will just, they can cover your entire house. Its very difficult to survive that. So youve got to take this very seriously. When theres an Evacuation Order theyre taking into consideration when and the storm surge and especially this one the storm surge. And as was said, wolf, this can affect the entire state. Its going coast to coast. This is a big, big, big storm. I just want toing precise, governor. The emergency services, like fire, paramedics, they will be cut off during the worst of it, the Emergency Personnel wont be able to reach people if they get through to 911. Right . They wont be ale to get ot t to you. In the middle of a storm surge, they cant get to you. We have great First Responders and will do everything in their power to keep you safe, but in the middle of the storm, they cant get to you. Between the wind, the rain and storm surge, it will be impossible for them to get to you. So youve got to take care of your now and dont wait. Get on the road to go somewhere, you have to get there now. If you have friends, family or shelter, dont wait. Do it now. We opened up shelters around the state. Do it now. Dont wait. Just think about your entire family. I love my kids. I dont want to lose them or my wife. I love them. Take care of your own family. So bottom line, governor, for people who decide despite all warnings, despite all the pleas, to stay in their homes and to supposedly ride out this monstrous storm, what its your bottom line message to these people . You know, i love you. I want you to be safe. I wish you would not try to ride this out. Please, go to a shelter. Please go to a friends house. Get out of harms way. Wherever you can, well help you but youre putting peoples lives at risk when you do that. Ill do what i can to take care of people and hope every would vuk wait right now if in an evacuation zone. Local officials, we see more evacuations that have come up and we learn more about what the storm surge will be. Showing viewers, governor, live pictures from Marion County in florida. You see the traffic heading north. Huge, huge numbers of cars. Very few cars heading in the other direction on the other part of this interstate. At what point do you decide, you know what . Everybodys going to go one way . What were doing right now is, we all do emergency vehicles to go south. Still trying to get more fuel here. We have tankers coming from the panhandle to bring fuel to central florida. One of my biggest, my biggest focus this week, how to get more fuel in the state, because weve got to continue to get more fuel here. So what weve done is from wildwood to weve done, a lot of people allowed to be on the shoulder, making for an additional lane, and Highway Patrol out there are directing traffic. Trying to keep everybody moving. We have road rangers 24 7 helping people. So were doing everything we can to keep the traffic moving and try to get people fuel. So look, if you can shelter in your own county and not you dont have to go out some place far away, thats a positive. You know there will be a greater chance that you can get where you want to go. But we want to get everybody where they want to go, and, oh, by the way, go to sl 511. Com to see what the traffic is where year trying to go. Theres an app called gas buddy, shows you where the gas is in the state. Gives an idea how to do it. By the way, we will make sure, if you want to get out, if you want to get out well do whatever we can to get you out. Call our 1800 number. We will do whatever we can to get you out. Looking for a shelter, go to disaster. Org shelter. We will do everything to get you to safety. My most i will spare no vent to keep people safe. Our meteorologist chad mire has a question for you governor. Hi, governor. About the gasoline. We see these people, ive been watching tweets. People saying im running out of gas. We dont have gas on i75 or the turnpike. Is gas on the way . Are those regulations that you changed yesterday, are those regulations working, and the people that are almost out of gas, are they listening on cnn xm. Com, can they be sure there will be gasoline when they get to places . Im doing everything i can. Everybody is. Ive got the reg layiulations w. More tankers are coming in. Fuel from the panhandle is coming down. The purchase is astronomical and were doing everything we can to get as much fuel as e cwe can. And i will do my best to get everybody what they need and you need to look at 511. Com, see what the roads are like, see how much gas you have. If you can shelter at places that take less gas, theres less risk. So you can we will do everything we can to make sure theres shelter for you, and don it during the storm. Meantime, you dont have enough gas to get someplace, call our hot line. We will do everything we can to get you to a shelter. Governor, thank you so much for joining us. We will clearly stay in very close touch with you. Grateful for what you and all the federal, state and local authorities are doing right now to prevent what clearly is a disaster that is about to unfold. Thank you, governor. Well get back in touch with you. Good luck. I want to quickly go to brian todd in West Palm Beach for us. Brian, youre getting new information. Police are telling families right now they must leave . Reporter thats right, wolf. Take a listen here. You are in a mandatory evacuation zone. Please, evacuate. Reporter captures the emergency, wolf, of the situation. Police squad kohrs now going door to door telling people to evacuate. Now a mandatory evacuation zone in West Palm Beach on south slagla drive. A lot of people telling us theyre going to ride it out. This is the final plea to try to get them to not do that. Please, evacuate. Reporter a lot of these houses, wolf, have Solid Structures and people think they can ride it out, but these guys are telling them, dont take that chance. Going door to doing here, they want people off the roads by tomorrow. Trying to get them on the roads now, and just doing it on a loud speaker. Ill let you listen again going door to door and sometimes stop and talk to people who happen to be out and who might stop and ask questions. Attention attention attention you are under mandatory evacuation. Reporter wolf, against, urgency here, people said for days, this is the point they have to physically go to peoples houses, along the streets and tell them, get out now. Were on the actual safe side of the intercoastal waterway. Relatively safe. Palm beach over there, a barrier island. Trying to get everyone. But this part, West Palm Beach, a Higher Elevation but feel this has to be evacuated, too. One thing about mandatory evacuations. They cant force people from their homes. It is mandatory, thats to express the urgency and need to get out but they cannot physically go in and force people from homes. This is about as close as they can come to doing that. All right, brian. Bramatic development unfolding in West Palm Beach where police are driving through the streets there telling folks to get out while they still can. I want to go to john berman in miami beach for us now. John, speaking to some people who simply wont leave. Even though there is an Evacuation Order where you are in miami beach . Reporter listening to the warnings before brian todd is up north of me in palm beach. Interesting to hear. Palm beach, where miami beach was maybe a day, a day and a half ago, people told to get out. Youre right, wolf. I talked to a man this morning, father of two kids. One 4yearold, one 1yearold, will ride it out inside his high rise on the 11th floor and thinks hell be safe. A lot of problem with that. One, the wind at the 11th floor to blow in windows. Two, miami beach could be cut off for days. Theyre very concerned about the storm surge. Im standing three feet over sea level, maybe. A storm surge of ten feet theyre expecting which will cover this area and go rigfooft that road into the stores and storefronts behind me. What the mayor of miami beach told me. Expecting, even the bestcase scenario. If youre staying in miami beach you are in for days and days of agony. Jot not just the immediate moment of danger during the storm. Most evacuated as far as we can tell. An island, a city of 100,000 people. I hope more than half got out but definitely still some are here. Including in this area, parks that have a homeless population. There are still Homeless People here. Police have been out on atvs trying to get people to safety. There is shelter, no matter their economic condition. No matter how much money. Well get you on a bus, theyre told, and get you to safety. Safety might be a couple miles inland. Doesnt have to be that far. The biggest concern here, wolf, as weve been noting, the storm surge. What can be deadly. You cant hunker down from storing surge. Viewers around the world have been to miami beach, south beach, go up a bit along the coast towards the big hotels, the fontainebleau, belle harbor. Is it pretty much evacuated . Are you seeing cars still staying put . Reporter look, its nothing like it is, if you come down here for a weekend in miami beach and youre used to the scene down here. Its nothing like that. But its not empty. I mean, you see people jogging by. You drive down the streets and will see theres a guy on the bike, just rode by right there. You see people pushing a stroller from time to time. Nothings open. In miami beach, nothings open at all. None of these hotels are open. None of the restaurants are open. Couldnt find a single store open on miami beach. All closed, but there are still remnants of people here, and it could be a very difficult few days for them, wolf. John berman. Well stay in very close touch with you as well. Stick around. Dont go far away. A quick break. Up next a brand new forecast coming in from the National Hurricane center. So where is the storm heading right now precisely . Plus, thousands of thousands of people trying to desperately to evacuate florida right now at this hurricane, Hurricane Irma closes in. What many are facing, jammed highways, massive backups. A live report when we come back. Sfx tmobile mnemonic sfx tmobile mnemonic sfx tmobile mnemonic tmobiles unlimited now includes netflix on us. 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Ed, update us on where you are, and what the conditions are like. Reporter hi, wolf. We wanted to check out the evacuation routes through various parts of southern florida. Just to kind of see and get a better sense how many people were hitting the road and listening to these warnings, and quite frankly, what weve seen at least down here from dade county where we are now on the southern edge of dade county, looking out on to the roads here this afternoon, from here through Broward County and into palm beach county, the areas weve focused on, and the roads, at least the major thoroughfares looked like this. These are the evac routes essentially. The highways you take to go from the very Southern Points of south florida all the way north to get away from the impact zone and the worst of Hurricane Irma. That is the area that weve seen traffic running rather smoothly. We are approaching those final hours where people are urged if youre going to move, now is the time to move. I dont want to make it sound like this is the way, how clear, this is the plastic all the way to north florida. Once you get closer to orlando, tampa, those areas, there is a fair amount of congestion and it gets much slower, but at least down here in the southern part of florida, in dade county, Broward County, palm beach county, this is very close to what weve seen throughout the day here today. Wolf . Looks like still enormous, enormous traffic going in one direction and very little in the other direction. Ed lavandera, well get back to you. All viewers now know, mandatory evacuations in place for various places in florida. Monroe, home to the florida keys, parts of miamidade, broward, palm beach, brevard and sarasota counties. And representing the 22nd Congressional District including areas of broward and palm beach counties, joining us from boca raton, florida. Thanks for joining us. I know youre incredibly busy. What is your biggest fear now . Were only hours away from this hurricane hitting florida. Well, my biggest fear is over the things we do have control of. Which is peoples decision to follow or not to follow the mandatory evacuation thats in place for large parts of south florida. People who live in areas that are subject to mandatory evacuation have to leave and cant leave until tomorrow, it might be too late and cant think theyll simply ride it out and if theres a problem Emergency Responders will come to them, because they wont. So thats my big concern, and beyond that, those working hard to take care of neighbors, everyones chipping in. I just want them to do what they need to do to be safe. Its not against the law for feel ride it out and ignore the advice, and the great advice to get out, but to ignore the Evacuation Orders, right . But theyre doing so at their own peril. The fact is, if they choose to stay, theyre putting their, first of all, most importantly, their putting their lives at risk, but also have to understand that if theres a problem and they live in an mandatory evacuation zone, they cant expect people will come help them. Thats why they need to come inland, come to a shelter. The shelters are filling up. In Broward County, for example, there are 23 available shelters, not all open yet, but theres troop accommodate people and their needs. That has to be the top priority now. Have all the seniors, the elderly folks, retirees, some of whom cant move all that easily, have they all been evacuated as far as you know, at least in your district . Well, they havent i cant say that theyve all been evacuated but i do know that there is an effort both at the government level and the nonprofit level for people to get access to to helpers. To people who can help them pack up and take them to a shelter. So theres been a, allin effort to focus on es special lit most vulnerable and seen a lot of elderly leave south florida. And also people that would have a really hard time getting throughs this are getting help. Good luck to you, congressman. Your family, all the folks down there. We will still want to stay in touch with you in the hours ahead. Appreciate it very much. Thank you, wolf. I appreciate it. Still ahead, floridas governors warning that Hurricane Irma has the potential to bring catastrophic devastation to the state. Some residents, though, insist they will stay. Well hear from one of them when we come back. We want falcons in new york. Jets in la. Bears in new orleans. Or buccaneers in a quaint, little new england bed and breakfast. Can you please pass the marmalade, charlie . I sure can, crazy pirate. Switch to directv and get every game, every sunday with nfl sunday ticket. Call 1800directv. But can also loweresterol, your bodys natural coq10. 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We can ignore these Evacuation Orders . Reporter you know, wolf, he says that he has ridden through other storms before and he plans to ride irma in his boat. Take a look around me. Weve talked to at least two people. They live on this bay. And they say that they will be riding the storm here. And as you said, weve been hearing from every public official in every level of florida, and everybody is saying, evacuate, because this is such dangerous storm. So what do you do to prepare if youre planning to ride the storm in a boat . Take a listen. I grew up at the sea and been through a lot of storms. This i think will be the worst, but i think ill survive but i need to save my boat and home and will do the best i can. Reporter as we take another live look here. Hearon the kicker, now. This man says that he actually took in a homeless person in his boat to ride the storm with him. He said its a lot safer if there was surge, he says, the boat will float. So, wolf, its still very dangerous, as you know. Hurricanes dont just come with surge. Hurricanespeed winds as well, flying debris. You never know what a hurricane is going to do. Wolf . Yep. These people should listen to advice and get out while they can and potentially save their lives. Rosa, thank you very much. Well stay in close touch with you as well. Fema officials reiterate its no longer a question of if Hurricane Irma will impact florida but a question of how badly. With us to auk about preparations, federal government response, virtual response by local and state authorities as well, senator bill nelson of florida, joining us on the phone from rockledge, about 200 miles north of miami. Senator, and i have known each other a long time. You grew up a little floridas east coast. Are you concerned about irma, more so than other storms. Hold on a second. Asking that everyone in the storms path remain vigilant and heed all recommendations from government officials and law enforcement. Our message to the american people, with gratitude for First Responders and prayers for those in the storms path we are behind you 100 . With that id like to bring up tom bossert is discuss pacif specifics, and after ill be up to take care of the questions. Thanks. Thanks, sarah. Thanks to each of you for being here. I cant add too much more to that. Let me see if i can jump in a little bit to my thinking here as youve heard me say before, i like to norm my thoughts informs, inspiring as i can. Informing, the process under president trumps leadership and the leadership of the cabinet are fully engaged in support of the governors. Those governors at this point are engaged in various differ forms and fadeses of what we consider incident management. As i walk through irma, id be remiss to not talk about harvey and texas. The people in texas and the people of louisiana under governor edwards are involved in the early stages of what will be a long recovery effort. The people in the u. S. Virgin islands, puerto rico and the other caribbean islands affected by harvey already are in the middle of acute lifesta sta ds operations and stages of preparation for the beginning of a response operation. So, were seeing all three play out for us at the same time. It requires us to juggle some of our thinking, but it doesnt require us to juggle our resources, so to be clear, the Response Operations have ceased, lifesaving and lifesustaining in harvey and we had an opportunity to rest and refit our forces, move them out and reposition them for harvey. Were right now employing them in the islands to save lives and we will maintain a good footprint and posture to do the same in florida, South Carolina, and georgia as the storm progresses. Ill come back to some of the track and forecast in a moment. Id like to see if i could reinforce that by suggesting we take this very seriously. Its not only a dangerous storm. Weve already seen loss of life. This storm has taken lives already. Its going to take more, unfortunately, if were not prepared, so please take it seriously. Id also suggest now in terms of influencing that people stop watching so carefully this track and start thinking a little bit more seriously about getting themselves into a safe place and out of danger. Now, i dont want them to take that as a call for shadow evacuations. Please listen to your local authorities on Evacuation Orders. This is a peninsula so people need to evacuate from south to north and that is a staggered and carefully thoughtthrough process but what i am suggesting is at this point, this is a large storm and whether it wobbled left or right, you need to, at this point, start thinking through your own personal accountability so please make sure its kind of an oxygen mask theory. Take care of yourself first so you can take care of others and if youre able, please take care of strangers and others in need. I think thats something weve seen in texas and i have every reason to believe that the people of florida and South Carolina will show that same american spirit and value. Lastly, if i can, theres been a lot of coverage of florida but not necessarily Media Coverage of the u. S. Virgin islands, and if i can, ill give you a brief update on where we stand. I just talked to the department of state and department of defense officials engaging in this lifesaving, lifesustaining operation until the following way. Governor mapp is experiencing loss of power, loss of water as a result, loss of communications and some other sheltering needs. And so what were doing is sending in air operations and surface operations to evacuate citizens. Were also doing that in st. Martin and the dutch, French Island thats been reported. There are some american citizens there. We are currently in the final stages of Operations Planning to evacuate those citizens. There are numbers ranging from 350 to 6,000. That was our planning assumption parameter. Those american citizens will be removed via surface and air means. Weve had to do some kind of planni planning adjustment for surf conditions and wind and hurricane jose as we look forward to that, hopefully missing the United States. Its unfortunately still causing some havoc in the islands and our Response Operations are evacuation operations. So thats where we stand on that. They will begin executing those plans, if not already, at some point soon today and well see some of those american citizens and others evacuated as necessary to include anyone with critical or acute medical needs. So, thats where i would stop on the update and then ill take your questions. One of the big problems with the florida evacuation is that so many gas stations are running out of gasoline. What, if anything, account federal government do in the next 24 hours to assist in getting more fuel to people in florida. Theres a number of things weve done. I should stop and mention, by name, Governor Scott. Tremendous leadership, tremendous confidence. He and the president and spoken. He and i have spoken. Ive got every confidence in the governor and his emergency manager. Theyre demonstrating the same leadership resolve and skill and quality of effort that we saw in texas a week ago. What were seeing in florida, though, are fuel shortages. We saw those same fuel shortages in texas because people appropriately gas up their generators, their cars, their boats and so forth. So, what well see here now is a need to pull in additional fuel and that need will run up against the onset of Tropical Storm force winds. So, what are we doing . Were bringing in as much supply of refined fuel as possible and weve waived a particular statute that allows for foreign flag vessels to help in that effort so its a little technical but its called the jones act. Some of you have reported on it. The secretary of Homeland Security can waive that act. Until thats waived, only u. S. Flagged vesz vessels can move move fuel from point to point domestically. Weve freed up that prohibition so now foreign flag vessels, as many ships, tanker ships as possible are now being brought to bear on the effort to bring as much fuel as possible to hep floridians regardless of their flagged vessel status and thats the best we can do. In addition, theyre planning all the intermodal points to get trucks from the most traanker sp port locations into the gas station. The window is rapidly closing. How much more can you get in there. Conditions will dictate that. I dont think it will be too much more that we can get in. At some point here, theyll have to stop those operations and thats one of my messages here. Its not a tough love message. Its just a message of clarity and honesty. At some point, people are going to be on their own, so to speak, for a period of time during which the flooding, the raining and the wind bear down on them and they need to be prepared if they are in that path and havent taken some action to get themselves in a less dangerous position to be ready for at least a 72hour period, that would be my advice, to have enough food, water, and shelter before the government can get back in. We have predeployed and prestaged but we cant get to that final point of care until conditions permit. One housekeeping question. For fema to have resources and no broken chain there, the president needs to sign legislation now thats just passed this morning. Any indication of when thats going to happen. Id like to start by thanking congress. They came in a fast way to give us emergency supplemental funding. First, fema still has the money they need so theres no break in operations. Let me make sure the clarify on your question there, but there will be are a break in operation fz they run out of money. Thank you to the house and Senate Leadership for bringing everyone back in and passing that so quickly and responsibly. We anticipate, honestly, this is a realtime event. The bill may be on its way. It requires signature by the speaker, the Vice President , and then signature by the president of the United States so i think that will happen today, but as soon as we get it, the president will take that seriously. Talk to us about the complication of the storm track and we dont know the wobbling nature but it looks like its going to cover the entire peninsula. How does that complicate Emergency Management response as it moves up the state and two floridians who are veterans of hurricanes, there is sometimes a tendency to say, i can ride this one out, ive seen bad storms before. Could you address those folks. Of course. Some people call it hurricane amnesia. Lets hope theres no hurricane amnesia but i would start by saying there are some people, probably some 20 of the population that might not remember or might not have gone through the last big hurricane in florida. It was probably 2004 or 5. There were four major hurricanes in 2004. Wilma in 2005, which was forgotten because of katrina. If you havent experienced it, take it seriously and ask those who have. If you have experienced it, please recall that what i just described took place. You were without power. You were without coms and water in some cases or sewer treatment for a period of time afterwards. So, plan for that. In terms of the track, theres three considerations. The upper right kind of, you know, Northeast Quadrant of the storm packs the most punch. The second consideration is if the eye wall gets over land, it tends to lose steam a little faster so if it stays over water, it tends to keep its strength a little longer so as this thing moves left and right, it can affect our operations because it can affect a different part of the state in a different way, wind or flood. What we see here over the next 24 hours is going to tell us which one were going to face. Were planning for all those eventualities. If it dips down and curls around to the other side of the state, right now, its my belief that people havent been planning for that. Im not suggesting thats going to happen. But it seems to be within the cone of uncertainty and so this storm at this point could do everything from tampa to jacksonville and a direct hit on miami so please plan for those things accordingly. Dont necessarily evacuate based on those eventualities, listen to your local officials as theyre tracking it most closely but do prepare to be in the storms path just in case. So thats how were going it and then lastly, to answer your question, major, what were doing is instead of prepositioning all the commodities in places that might be affected by the storm, to continue support operations to the islands, the fema Logistics Team have thought through placing those supplies elsewhere. Up to delaware and new york and elsewhere so they continue barge operations in to support the islands and that the next storm doesnt affect the storm before. If that answers your question. The big question is, after the chemical fire that occurred in texas, and the fact that you all are being taxed with a second storm, is there any extra precautions being taken this time to ensure that type of thing doesnt happen here and how taxed is the system for this and for jose coming in. Well, the system can be taxed in different ways. I addressed already the lifesaving, lifesustaining operational capabilities that we have, all the teams that are marshalled by the federal government but provide bd by th states. Theyre all rested and ready to come back into the fight, United States military, National Guard and title x forces. Were preparing for environmental losses as we should. I cant speak to each and every companys preparation efforts. We can continue to monitor that and follow up with you. There will be steps that are taken from setting down the nuclear facility, the Nuclear Power facility to a position of safety. I think they take some kind of warm shutdown posture at some point depending on the track. So we monitor those things. I was comfortable with the position of most of them. We also look at lake okeechobee because thats going to be a big flooding risk. Is there anything youre not comfortable with that is an overriding concern. Were worried about the fuel shortages. Were worried about whatever worries the governor at this point. But no, to be honest with you, i am setting expectations appropriately here because