page_title: Effects of Hurricane Irma in Florida
section_title: Evacuations
hierarchical_section_title: Effects of Hurricane Irma in Florida / Preparations / Evacuations
caption_attribution_description: English: Interstate 4 viewed from the U.S. Highway 27 overpass (Davenport, Florida) on the afternoon of Saturday, September 9, 2017, which was the afternoon before the arrival of Hurricane Irma. The forecast track of Category 4/5 Hurricane Irma had been to make a turn from a westwardly track to a northerly track before making landfall in Florida and for most of the preceding week it was forecast to make landfall near Miami and travel inland up the east coast of Florida, but by late Thursday, as Irma did not begin curving towrds the north, the forecast track up the Florida Peninsula shifted west. By Friday evening, the forecast track was up the west coast, prompting a large volume of evacuees from the Tampa Bay area towards the Orlando area. On Saturday, the Governor authorized the Florida Highway Patrol and Florida Department of Transportation to initiate an emergency shoulder use plan on eastbound I-4 from U.S. Highway 41 in Tampa to State Road 429 on the southern side of the Orlando metropolitan area. The emergency shoulder use plan allowed moving vehicles (except trucks and buses) to use the left shoulder as a travel lane with a speed limit of 40 mph (64 km/h). The emergency shoulder use plan was implemented instead of contraflow.
context_page_description: Hurricane Irma was the costliest storm in the history of the U.S. state of Florida. Irma developed from a tropical wave near the Cape Verde Islands on August 30, 2017. The storm quickly became a hurricane on August 31 and then a major hurricane shortly thereafter, but would oscillate in intensity over the next few days. By September 4, Irma resumed strengthening, and became a powerful Category 5 hurricane on the following day. The cyclone then struck Saint Maarten and the British Virgin Islands on September 6 and later crossed Little Inagua in the Bahamas on September 8. Irma briefly weakened to a Category 4, but re-intensified into a Category 5 hurricane before making landfall in the Sabana-Camagüey Archipelago of Cuba. After falling to Category 3 status due to land interaction, the storm re-strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane in the Straits of Florida. Irma struck Florida twice on September 10 – the first as a Category 4 at Cudjoe Key and the second on Marco Island as a Category 3. The hurricane weakened significantly over Florida and was reduced to a tropical storm before exiting the state into Georgia on September 11.
context_section_description: The Florida Division of Emergency Management (DEM) estimated that about 6.5 million Floridians were ordered to evacuate, mostly for those living on barrier islands or in coastal areas; in mobile or sub-standard homes; and in low-lying or flood prone areas. Mandatory evacuations were ordered for portions of Brevard, Broward, Citrus, Collier, Dixie, Duval, Flagler, Glades, Hendry, Hernando, Indian River, Lee, Martin, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota, Seminole, St. Lucie, Sumter, and Volusia counties. All of Monroe County, where the Florida Keys are located, was placed under a mandatory evacuation. An estimated 25% of Monroe County residents stayed. Residents in communities near the southern half of Lake Okeechobee were also ordered to leave, including Belle Glade, Canal Point, Clewiston, Flaghole, Harlem, Ladeca Arces, Lakeport, Montura, Moore Haven, Pahokee, and Pioneer. Additionally, voluntary evacuation notices were issued for all or parts of Alachua, Baker, Bay, Bradford, Charlotte, Columbia, Desoto, Hardee, Highlands, Hillsborough, Lake, Manatee, Okeechobee, Osceola, and Polk counties.
  A record 6.5 million Floridians evacuated, making it the largest evacuation in the state's history. Evacuees caused significant traffic congestion on northbound Interstate 95, Interstate 75, and Florida's Turnpike, exacerbated by the fact that the entire Florida peninsula was within the cone of uncertainty in the NHC's forecast path in the days before the storm, so evacuees from both coasts headed north, as evacuees would not be safer by fleeing to the opposite coast. Fuel was in short supply throughout peninsular Florida during the week before Irma's arrival, especially along evacuation routes, leading to hours-long lines at fuel stations and even escorts of fuel trucks by the Florida Highway Patrol. Use of the left shoulder as a lane for moving traffic was allowed on northbound Interstate 75 from Wildwood to the Georgia state line beginning September 8 and on eastbound Interstate 4 from Tampa to State Road 429 near Celebration for a few hours on September 9. It was the first time that the shoulder-use plan, which was introduced at the start of the 2017 hurricane season, was implemented by the state for hurricane evacuations. The shoulder-use plan was implemented in place of labor- and resource-intensive contraflow lane reversal, in which both sides of an interstate highway are used for one direction of traffic.
  Throughout the state, nearly 700 emergency shelters were opened. The shelters collectively housed about 191,764 people, with more than 40% of them staying in a shelter in South Florida, including 31,092 in Miami-Dade County, 17,263 in Palm Beach County, 17,040 in Collier County, and 17,000 in Broward County. Additionally, more than 60 special needs shelters were opened, which housed more than 5,000 people by September 9.
caption: Traffic on Interstate 4 in Davenport, showing the shoulder-use plan in action
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