LAX Travelers Flying To Florida Worry As Hurricane Dorian Closes In

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Travelers flying home to Florida from LAX Thursday night worried about what’s in store for them as Hurricane Dorian bears down on the state.

“If they say evacuate, we’re out,” said passenger Jay Nelson.

“We’re definitely going to get some rain but I’m hoping that it stays off Miami and we’re okay,” passenger Lindsay Nelson said, “We’ll kind of hunker down and hang out if it’s too much rain and have a good time inside instead.”

Thousand Oaks resident Sue Engler has volunteered with the Red Cross’ disaster relief efforts since 2008 and is preparing to help out.

“I was contacted by the national headquarters for the American Red Cross to be ready to go well enough in advance of when recovery needs to be planned,” Engler said.

The National Weather Service said Dorian could be a triple threat, bringing life threatening storm surge, devastating winds, and heavy rain. It could come ashore anywhere from southern Florida to the Georgia border, bringing with it 100 mile per hour wind gusts.

On Thursday afternoon, the International Space Station flew over #HurricaneDorian and recorded this video of the strengthening storm from space: https://t.co/yk9aUjSxZd pic.twitter.com/q9l6ZTq6O4

— AccuWeatherAstronomy (@AccuAstronomy) August 29, 2019

The governors of Florida and Georgia have already declared a state of emergency. Florida’s governor has activated more than 2,500 national guard troops and local mayors are begging people to be prepared.

”You need to have three days of food. You need to have three days’ worth of water. As much as possible try to be self-sufficient,” Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez warned residents.

Officials say they’re learning from the past; Hurricane Irma hit Florida hard two years ago.

West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James says they’re already sending teams to nursing homes to make sure they have generators and supplies: “We don’t want a repeat of some of the horror stories I’m sure you heard from other communities in 2017, where folks literally died from heat exposure.”

And the timing of this storm — Labor Day Weekend — is bad for local businesses, which rely heavily on tourist dollars. Visitors in Cocoa Beach are already canceling hotel reservations and cruise ships and flights are being re-routed as well.

So far officials in Florida haven’t ordered evacuations. President Trump has been briefed on the storm and canceled a trip to Poland ahead of Dorian’s arrival.

 

 

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