MIAMI, Fla. – Sen. Rick Scott emphasized the importance of evacuations Monday from the National Hurricane Center in Miami. He and other Florida leaders have been watching Hurricane Dorian's developments in the Atlantic Ocean as it nears the state's east coast.
"We hope for the best but we have to keep preparing for the worst," Scott said about Hurricane Dorian. The storm weakened to a Category 4 Monday morning.
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"If you look at a lot of deaths they're caused by the water," he said as he urged people to heed the NHC's storm surge warnings.
"We get the flooding or we get the storm surge. What [the NHC] is saying right now is that we have the potential in many parts of Florida where we're going to have 4 to 7 feet of storm surge. Think about that. That's taller than most American citizens."
He stressed for Floridians to also follow orders given by local law enforcement and their city and county officials. He said deciphering models and tracks for oneself could be a deadly situation.
"Understand that the cone of uncertainty 2/3 of the time is somewhere outside that. Don't believe [Dorian] is going to be in some perfect track," he said.
He says the best thing that could happen is that officials put out too many warnings and distributed too much information.
"That means we probably saved some lives in this case," Scott said.
According to Dorian's current track, conditions are expected to deteriorate late Monday with the worst of the weather from the storm arriving through the day Tuesday and Wednesday.
Weather forecasters say Hurricane Dorian's winds have decreased slightly, downgrading the system from its previous Category 5 status.
As of Monday morning, the storm was sitting over Grand Bahama Island and has maximum sustained winds of 155 mph with higher gusts.