Trump Declares Emergency As Georgia Braces For Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Irma continued rolling toward the Southeast on Friday, looking most likely to strike in Florida but promising to have plenty of power left over for Georgia.

President Donald Trump on Friday officially declared a state of emergency in Georgia, freeing up federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts once the storm hits the state. The president's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts in the state.

Still packing maximum sustained winds of nearly 155 m.p.h. Irma was churning as a dangerous Category 4 storm just north of Cuba shortly before 2 p.m. Friday. That placed the storm's eye about 380 miles southeast of Miami, Florida. (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

Watch: President Trump Urges People To Heed Hurricane Warnings

It was moving westward at about 14 m.p.h., but was expected to continue on a west-northwest path later in the day. Even as a Category 4, Irma has the potential to become the strongest hurricane to strike in Georgia since 1898.

National Hurricane Center forecasters say the storm is expected to slow down in coming days and make another turn toward the northwest by late Saturday. The eye is expected to near the Florida keys and southern Florida peninsula by Sunday morning.

Analysis: Irma's 'Cone Of Uncertainty' Is Massive

Tropical-storm force winds are expected to blow into south Georgia by 8 p.m. Sunday and the metro Atlanta as early as 8 a.m. Monday.

At a news conference Friday morning, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal urged residents not to take the storm's weakening, or Friday's calm weather in much of the state, as signs that things won't get bad.

"Do not take that for granted," Deal said. "This is a rapidly moving hurricane and the weather and consequences of that hurricane can change dramatically in a relatively short period of time."

At the conference, Georgia National Guard Adjutant Gen. Joe Jarrard said 5,000 guard members have been called up to assist with storm recovery when necessary.

Deal urged Georgians to pray for one another and others in the direct path of the storm. He also reiterated the importance of residents who are under the mandatory evacuations heeding those warnings.

"If you are in a mandatory evacuation area, evacuate because we can not risk the lives of those who are trying to help others by sending them into areas that we have already identified that are going to be hazardous to everyone’s health and safety," Deal said.

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Irma has claimed at least 11 lives so far as it has unleashed driving winds and pounding surf in the Caribbean. The extent of damage remains to be determined, but early indications are not good. The first islands hit by the storm were scenes of terrible destruction late on Thursday.

On Thursday, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal issued a mandatory evacuation for coastal areas east of Interstate 95. The evacuation becomes mandatory on Saturday — when "contraflow" measures will turn all lanes on Interstate 16 into westbound lanes headed toward Macon and Atlanta.

Friday, Deal added 64 counties to the list of those under a state of emergency as authorities brace for heavy rains, wind damage, and power outages when the storm powers through parts of the Peach State. A growing number of Red Cross shelters are open in Macon for residents who need a place to stay. State officials say residents should contact their local emergency management agency for information on good samaritan shelters available locally.

The following is the current list of Red Cross shelters, as well as their planned opening times.
Open Shelters:

• East Macon Park: open at 5 p.m. Address: 3326 Ocmulgee E Blvd., Macon, GA 31217
• North Macon Park Community Center: open at 10 a.m. Address: 815 N Macon Park Dr., Macon, GA 31210
• Waycross High School: open at 5 p.m. Address: 700 Victory Dr., Waycross, GA 31503
• Blackshear Trail Elementary: open at 6 p.m. Address: 1001 Blackshear Road, Cordele, GA 31015
• Delores A. Brooks Recreation Center (formerly known as the East Macon Recreation Center) 3326 Ocmulgee E Blvd, Macon, GA 31217
• North Macon Park Community Center Address: 815 N Macon Park Dr., Macon, GA 31210
• First Baptist Church of Cuthbert: open at 2 p.m Address: 567 College St, Cuthbert, GA 39840
• Westside High School: open at 5 p.m. Address: 1002 Patriots Way, August, GA 30904
• Blackshear Trail Elementary: open at 6 p.m. Address: 1001 Blackshear Road, Cordele, GA 31015

To help ease highway congestion, Georgia DOT will suspend construction lane closures on interstates and secondary routes south of I-20 this weekend.

But as early as Thursday, and continuing into Friday morning, people were already clogging the highway in an effort to get ahead of the storm.

Becky and Mike Gerald evacuated their Tybee Island condo a block from the beach for Hurricane Matthew. Though that storm ripped away portions of some neighbors' roofs, the couple returned to a home unscathed.

Even after Georgia's evacuation order was issued, they were talkig of riding out Irma at home.

"I may not go at Category 3 if the surge isn't so high," Mike Gerald said.

"I don't know, honey," his wife replied. "Where do we have to go except the bathroom and the back bedroom?"

Still, Becky Gerald said she planned to remain on the island if Irma wasn't forecast to hit as a major storm.

"There's just things I can't save," she said. "I have all my mother's antiques. You spend your whole life working hard and in a flash it's all gone."

Meanwhile, Atlanta hotels were filling up, with vacancies becoming harder and harder to find as Floridians and south Georgians flocked to the area.

Traveler-hosting site Airbnb has activated its Disaster Response Program for Hurricane Irma. This program will facilitate free temporary housing in northern Florida and southern Georgia to evacuees and relief workers arriving to assist in response to Hurricane Irma.

Airbnb hosts in Decatur, Grady and Thomas counties in south Georgia are eligible for the program. These $0 listings are available for the next three weeks, until September 28. Hosts interested in listing their properties for free are being directed to follow airbnb.com/disaster, where they can opt in by clicking "I can offer my space for free."

Traffic was already heavy on Interstate 75 to Atlanta by Thursday afternoon with evacuees pouring out of Florida. Forecasts called for Irma's center to reach the Georgia-Florida line by Monday morning, though the storm's exact path and intensity remained uncertain.

According to the Georgia Department of Transportation's travel map, traffic was moving smoothly along all of Interstate 16, between Savannah and Macon, at about 9:30 a.m. Friday. There were stoppages, though, just south of Savannah on Interstate 95, near the merge of Interstate 16 and Interstate 75 in Macon, and in multiple spots along I-75 between Macon and Atlanta.

Traffic also was stop-and-go on many of metro Atlanta's highways, including parts of Interstate 285 and the Downtown Connector.

Friday morning, the State Road and Tollway Authority had switched all south metro express lanes to run northbound. In addition, the lanes, which usually require a toll to use, were opened to all vehicles, regardless of whether they have the usually required Peach Pass.

The switch took effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday. Travel on Interstate 75 s being coordinated by the tollway authority and the Georgia Department of Transportation. The express lanes are not open to vehicles with more than two axles or six wheels.

Meanwhile, gas stations in Georgia were worrying that all of the travel going on in the Peach State could impact the supply of gasoline.

Angela Holland, with the Georgia Association of Convenience Stores, told WSB-TV on Thursday that Georgia's fuel supply was already tight due to Hurricane Harvey. She said supplies in south Georgia already were being affected by the Irma exodus.

“With so many people coming up from Florida, it could be very tight," she told the station. "We’ve already seen some spotty outages in the area."

Floridians and south Georgias fleeing Irma had turned Atlanta's freeways into a ribbon of red neon brake lights Friday, with traffic in some spots barely moving. Thousands of evacuees have been funneled to the city, since so many them are heading north on Interstate 75 straight to Atlanta. Some ended up at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which opened its vast camp grounds to anyone trying to escape Irma.

It took 21 hours for Suzanne Pallot of Miami to reach Atlanta Thursday, in an SUV packed with four other people, their luggage and two cats.

After a night at a relative's house, she heard weather forecasts predicting tropical storm force winds for Atlanta on Monday. So the group decided Friday to keep moving, this time to Memphis, Tennessee.

Other Federal, State, and Local Resources for Storm Updates

• National Weather Service Atlanta on Twitter- @NWSAtlanta
• Georgia Emergency Management & Homeland Security Agency-http://www.gema.ga.gov/
• Georgia EM&HS on Twitter- @GeorgiaEMA
• Cherokee County Emergency Management Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/CherokeeEMA/

Disaster Relief Organizations

• The American Red Cross- http://www.redcross.org/
• Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief- https://missiongeorgia.org/georgia-disaster-relief/
• The Salvation Army- https://disaster.salvationarmyusa.org/
• Samaritan’s Purse- https://www.samaritanspurse.org/

Patch's Kristal Dixon assisted with this report.

Photos courtesy National Hurricane Center, Georgia Department of Transportation.