Nearly 540,000 ordered to flee Georgia coast ahead of Irma
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Georgia’s governor on Thursday ordered nearly 540,000 coastal residents to evacuate inland ahead of Hurricane Irma as authorities warned the storm had the potential to strike as a major hurricane, something the Georgia coast hasn’t seen in more than a century.
“If there’s a freight train coming at you, then you get off the tracks,” said Jason Buelterman, mayor of Tybee Island, a beach community of more than 3,000 residents east of Savannah.
Gov. Nathan Deal ordered all six Georgia coastal counties to start evacuating at 8 a.m. Saturday. That’s when officials planned to turn all lanes of Interstate 16 into a one-way route inland, sending traffic west from Savannah. However, some local governments urged people to leave as soon as possible Friday.
It’s the second time in less than a year that Georgia coastal residents have been told to flee a storm. The last time was when Hurricane Matthew brushed the state’s 100-mile (160-kilometre) coast without coming ashore last October. That storm caused three deaths in Georgia and an estimated $500 million in damage.