Thursday morning emergency officials issued a mandatory evacuation for Pinellas County. The evacuation is for coastal areas and mobile homes as Hurricane Irma continues its path for Florida.
County commissioners unanimously voted evacuations for Level A starting 6 a.m. Friday. As of now commissioners are still discussing evacuations of zone B and C for Saturday.
To check Pinellas County evacuation zones please click the links below.
Hurricane Irma is expected to hit Florida along the east coast over the weekend. The west coast of the state will experience tropical storm conditions on Sunday.
The National Hurricane Center’s 11 a.m. forecast update shows Hurricane Irma continuing its path northwest before taking a slight turn to go up the east coast of Florida.
Thursday morning the storm remains a category five and is on track to hit north of the Dominican Republic this morning before heading for the Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas. Irma still poses a dangerous threat to Florida and other parts of the Southeast.
Irma’s center is located about 165 miles southeast of Grand Turk Island moving west-northwest at about 17 mph. The maximum sustained winds are 180 mph per NOAA and Air Force Hurricane Hunter aircraft. That’s a drop from 185 mph for 35 hours.
Hurricane warnings are in effect for parts of the northern Dominican Republic and Haiti as well as the southeastern, central and northwestern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Hurricane watches have been issued for portions of Cuba and South Florida. The Miami portion of the state could experience some of the outer bands of Irma as early as Saturday morning.
Per Fox 13, here is a list of shelters open in Pinellas County:
Pet-friendly/ special needs shelter:
- Dunedin Highland Middle School (70 Patricia Ave., Dunedin)
- Oak Grove Middle School (1370 S. Belcher Road, Clearwater)
- John Hopkins Middle School (701 16th St. South, St. Petersburg)
Open shelters:
- Tarpon Springs Middle School (501 N. Florida Ave., Tarpon Springs)
- Palm Harbor University High School (1900 Omaha St., Palm Harbor)
- Largo High School (410 Missouri Ave., Largo)
- Gibbs High School (850 34th St. South, St. Petersburg)
