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“We have to prepare for the worst and absolutely pray and hope for the very best” Premier Wayne Panton declared in a video on Sunday. Besides Florida’s Tampa Bay coast, grocery store shelves are fastly cleared of all the basic necessities.
Plus, there are enormous queues at various gas stations. As Tampa Mayor Jane Castor tweeted recently, “It’s never too early to prepare.” The Tampa area might receive its first direct hit from a hurricane since 1921, as officials added, and may even see 10ft of storm surge caused a lot of flooding along the coast.
“You have to treat this storm seriously. It’s the real deal.” according to Hillsborough County Emergency Management Director Timothy Dudley. “This is not a drill,” he added in the latest news conference he attended on Monday.