Leesburg,FL : Irma on a collision course with Florida, Lake County on September, Saturday 2nd 2017

Lake County and all of Florida are praying for Hurricane Irma to wobble east off the coast and back into the Atlantic Ocean over the weekend.

But if some of the most pessimistic meteorological models prove accurate, she could either brush the coast with punishing winds stretching all the way inland to Lake County or, worse, travel up the center of the state with the full fury of a category 3 hurricane by the time it reaches this far north beginning Saturday night and into Sunday.

And although that would be a rare phenomenon, National Weather Service Meteorologist Scott Kelly, out of the Melbourne office, believes people in Lake County should be taking Hurricane Irma seriously.

Kelly called it “a real threat.”

“We are not forecasting specific wind of rainfall at this time. It’s too early, but there’s one thing: the threat of Hurricane Irma is real as a major hurricane for the vicinity of Lake County,” Kelly said. “The definition of a major hurricane is category 3.”

Kelly said a category 3 hurricane, in general, carries with it, 115-mile per hour winds or higher.

Kelly said past hurricanes like 2004's Charley, Frances and Jeanne - that impacted Lake County - were category 3 hurricanes, although they had diminished in intensity by the time they hit Lake.

That may not be the case with Irma.

“This is a large and powerful storm. Irma is the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin outside of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico,” Kelly said.


He said there is a 51 percent chance of tropical force storm winds in Lake County.

Models continue to show Irma traveling west or northwest.

“It should be coming across the Florida Straight this weekend northbound and is expected to turn over to or near the Florida Peninsula this weekend,” Kelly said.

“In Lake County, the earliest reasonable arrival time of tropical storm force winds – with a tropical storm being defined as 40 mph or higher – is Saturday night,” Kelly said.

From there, the storm should worsen steadily into the Category 3 range, with the most significant impacts to be felt on Sunday and well into Monday.

Kelly said he could not make a forecast as to what parts of Lake County, or Florida in general, could be hit most severely.

Meanwhile, key government decision-makers are watching Hurricane Irma closely but aren’t yet battening down the hatches until they have a better idea what direction the storm is headed.


Among those who huddled Wednesday in Tavares were the sheriff, public safety director, property appraiser, county manager, chairman of the board of county commissioners, the health department supervisor, superintendent of schools, county attorney and more.

Wednesday afternoon, they decided to close schools.

One area that concerns county officials at the moment is the county animal shelter. Officials are looking for foster families – even if only temporary – to take animals from the shelter.

Pappacoda said a program called the Shelter Break Sleepover allows people to take pets home for a week, weekend or day at a time, anytime.

She said during Hurricane Irma there will be limited staff at the shelter to care for the animals.

Pappacoda said the shelter does have a generator, so the animals will be safe, but the more help they can get, the better.

“If people are willing to open their hearts and homes to a pet during the storm, it would be wonderful. All of our humans and animals at the shelter are going to be taken care of. But if you have a safe place, if you are prepared and you know you will be staying, right now would be a good time to take advantage of the temporary sleepover program we offer,” she said.


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Irma on a collision course with Florida, Lake County