As Hurricane Irma crashed into the Florida Keys on Sunday with 130 mph winds and pushing a wall of water up to 15 feet high, Gov. Rick Scott implored: “Pray for us.”
“People ask what they can do for us,” Scott said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Pray for us. We need volunteers, nurses. … I hope everybody will pray for us.”
Irma made landfall in the Keys at around 9 a.m. on Sunday and is expected to ravage the string of islands with punishing winds and deadly flood waters as it continues on its route north.
Scott warned the devastating storm surge from Irma, already blamed for three deaths, will cause the waters to rise quickly and overwhelm everything in its path.
”This water is going to come in very quickly, it’s going to cover your first floor potentially or more and then eventually it’s going to come out. I don’t know how you’re going to survive that,” he said.
With first responders unable to hit the streets because of the lashing wind and rain, Scott said residents who haven’t evacuated or sought shelter are on their own.
“We can pray. That’s the biggest thing we can do. We can pray,” he said. “Right now the first responders can’t get out because of the wind and the rain and in the west coast as the storm surge comes up, so hopefully everyone has gotten to their shelters or gotten to a safe place.”
Once emergency personnel deem it’s safe, they’ll begin to respond.
“We will do everything we can. We will spare no expense to save every life in this state,” the governor said.
Head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Brock Long echoed Scott’s warning about the storm surge and said his biggest worry is people who try to ride out the hurricane.
“So my biggest concern is when people fail to heed a warning early from local government officials and then they make a last minute [effort] to try to get to a shelter or get into a facility to withstand the winds,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “And in some cases the water starts to rise and they get trapped because they didn’t heed the warning early. That’s my biggest concern.”
“Sometimes people listen and sometimes people don’t,” he added.
Long said flooding caused by Irma’s powerful storm surge is the biggest threat.
“Storm surge has the highest potential to kill the most amount of people and cause the most amount of damage,” he said.
He said he’s been in communication with President Trump and with officials in Alabama and Georgia as Irma continues its path north along the west coast of Florida.
“This is the worst case scenario for Monroe County, Florida Keys and the west coast of Florida,” Long said.
Scott said Irma, which is 400 miles wide, will unleash its fury on the entire state of Florida.
“This is going to impact our whole state,” he said. “You are going to get the wind and the rain on the east coast. But right now, it’s impacting the Keys. It’s going to impact, my hometown of Naples, Fla. All up the west coast. And what’s scary is the unbelievable storm surge – potentially in my home town 15 feet of storm surge above ground level. And we’re talking about that. Same thing with the Keys.”