As Hurricane Matthew bears down on Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, evacuation orders have been issued and the ATA is reminding drivers that “there is no delivery or trip that is worth putting yourself or others in harm’s way.”
Experts are warning that this could be a storm with a huge impact. According to the National Weather Service, the storm surges will be “much greater” than the surges that hit New Jersey during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The National Weather Service indicated that some areas could experience flooding more than 9 feet high, with large waves on top of that.
Surges will be pushed along by winds that are expected to reach 125mph, fading to 90mph by the time the storm is expected to head back out to sea.
Evacuation orders have been issued in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina already with officials urging people to take the warnings seriously. Over 3.1 million people are in mandatory and voluntary evacuation areas.
“This storm will kill you,” Florida Governor Rick Scott said Thursday morning, adding that “this is life and death.”
Hurricane Matthew has already claimed hundreds of lives as it ripped through the Caribbean. In Haiti alone, some reports put the death toll as high as 300 people and counting.
While the storm briefly died down to a category 3 hurricane, it has picked up power again and is now ranked as a category 4. The last time a storm that strong made landfall anywhere on the Northeast Florida/Georgia Coast was in 1898.
The storm is expected to make landfall in Florida and then make its way up the coast, pummeling Georgia and South Carolina before heading back out to sea on Sunday. Incredibly, according to some forecasts, the storm may then loop back around and hit Florida again on Monday or Tuesday.
All three states which have declared states of emergency have also suspended several federal regulations on truckers who are providing emergency services or supplies, transporting emergency equipment, supplies or personnel, or who are transporting FEMA homes.
Source: truckinginfo, weather, nytimes, abc, usatoday, overdrive, prnewswire, weather
“Bears”. Things that travel towards other things, “bear” down on them. Not “bare”. Make your editor buy you a cup of coffee, for missing that… 😛
He’s a man. Like Jeff Foxworthy says, he wants a beer and he wants to see something naked.
I hate picky grammar people.
This storm will kill you, it’s ok, go ahead and bring in those emergency shelters!
someone needs to tell that to Carroll Fulmer they will turn you in to the storm they sent me South to go pick up instead of getting me out of there and she said well well it’s not here yet
Somewhere, in there, is a Swift driver determined to make delivery by a dispatcher who cannot read a weather report.