Gov. Rick Scott acknowledged Thursday "there is a lot of uncertainty" whether Florida will be hit by Tropical Storm Erika, but he urged Floridians to get ready after receiving a briefing at the state's Emergency Operations Center.
“The biggest thing is be prepared,” Scott said, adding that Floridians should “hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Get ready.”
With Florida possibly on track for its first hit from a hurricane in a decade, Scott said it was important for residents to begin storm preparations. EOC officials have put the state on a Level 2 activation, still short of the Level 3 that usually precedes a full-blown storm.
He urged people to check on elderly or disabled relatives and friends, while also bringing in three days worth of food, water and medicine.
“Think about each and every family member,” Scott said.
The storm’s path is still not clear, but Florida could be on course to at least get plenty of rain, Scott said.
While this could prove the biggest storm to face Scott as governor, he said he felt ready. And he reflected on being in South Florida when Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992.
“I was running a hospital company…and we had two hospitals that were completely evacuated, and if you remember Andrew, it went south…and we had a hospital basically completely demolished. I had 500 employees without homes. We had to handle patients for hours. But we had a complete team there and we got our hospitals back open and we did a good job.”
Scott said the state has a similar team in place.
“This is a statewide effort,” Scott said.
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