Brandonites with property in Florida keep close eye on Hurricane Irma

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This article was published 09/09/2017 (3130 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandonites with Florida connections are anxiously watching the news as Hurricane Irma barrels toward the Sunshine State.

Charlie Clark, CEO of NetSet Communications, owns a property in Windermere, just north of Walt Disney World.

“One of the reasons that we built our home where we did was to be as inland as we could be,” he said. As his property is located in the centre of the state, he is hopeful it will remain outside of the hurricane’s path.

Officials at Walt Disney World in Orlando announced Friday that its parks will close this afternoon and remain closed through Monday. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said Friday that more than 660,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate — the largest evacuation order he can remember.

Clark expressed concern for the millions of people living in the coastal areas.

“Florida is a beautiful state and this storm has the potential of causing widespread damage and catastrophic losses to thousands of properties,” he said. “Our thoughts are with our Florida friends and neighbours.”

The Clarks built their Florida home in 2015 and spend the winter months there.The family has regularly travelled to the state for many years, drawn to its beautiful landscape, friendly people and many attractions.

As the storm gets closer to the United States, Clark’s neighbours have been taking some precautions for them, such as moving outdoor furniture inside.

“We, in turn, have offered the use of our home should they have friends in the southern portion of the state that are displaced because of the storm.”

The hurricane scraped Cuba’s northern coast Friday, leaving in its wake a ravaged string of Caribbean resort islands. Irma rolled past the Dominican Republic and Haiti and battered the Turks and Caicos Islands early Friday with waves as high as 20 feet. The death toll rose to 22 by Friday afternoon.

“You worry for anybody that’s in the Caribbean right now, as well for Florida,” said Brad Munn, who owns property in the Dominican Republic. “We can’t imagine, living in Brandon, seeing a storm of that magnitude.”

Munn, a real estate agent with Royal LePage, has been travelling to the Dominican Republic for the past 10 years. He owns a condo in the Puerto Plata area, on the northern coast. Fortunately, this area seemed to avoid the brunt of the storm.

“High winds and lots of rain, but no apparent damage,” Munn said, after receiving a report from his property manager.

“It’s a relief for a lot of people … we’re very grateful and thankful that it passed by us, but … it wasn’t so fortunate for some of the other islands that were certainly devastated by it.”

Munn is involved with a charity called Blanco’s Kids DR in Puerto Plata. The charity operates a school with four classrooms, which currently assists 91 children of Haitian descent.

“That has a pretty strong Brandon connection to it too because most of our supporters are from Brandon,” he said.

Irma was at one point the most powerful recorded storm in the open Atlantic. It could be one of the most devastating storms ever to hit Florida, a state that has undergone rapid development since the last major hurricane struck a dozen years ago.

Florida residents and tourists faced gas shortages and gridlock on inland highways as a half-million people in Miami-Dade County were ordered to clear out.

Uncertainty over the path of Hurricane Irma has prompted Georgia’s governor to expand a pre-emptive emergency declaration to cover more than half of the state. By Friday afternoon, Nathan Deal had declared a state of emergency for 94 of Georgia’s 159 counties.

» jaustin@brandonsun.com, with files from The Canadian Press

» Twitter: @jillianaustin