Manatee County Enacts Curfew As Irma Nears

BRADENTON, FL — As Hurricane Irma pounds the Florida Keys on a course likely to have devastating consequences for the Tampa Bay area, Manatee County has enacted a curfew.

The emergency, 24-hour curfew goes into effect at 3 p.m. Sept. 10 due to the weather. (For more hurricane news or local news from Florida, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Bradenton Patch, and click here to find your local Florida Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

"After this storm passes, there will be downed trees and power lines," Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells said. "Conditions will be unsafe and we want to protect citizens from a situation they cannot control. We will not tolerate sightseers wanting to take a look at the damage and ride into neighborhoods to see what the storm has done to the community. Until 3 p.m. tomorrow, stay off the roads.”

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Looters, Wells said, “will go to jail. We want to protect citizens and their property.”

County Commissioners Robin DiSabatino urged residents to stay put during the storm.

"Designate a safe room without any windows and have supplies in there," DiSabatino said.

While most of the county’s shelters are full, DiSabatino said Lakewood Ranch High School is now open as a “last-resort shelter.” Pets will be allowed.

Hurricane Irma was bearing down on the Florida Keys just before 10 a.m. Sunday. The ferocious storm that tore through the Caribbean, leaving at least 20 people dead in its wake, was packing maximum sustained winds of 130 mph as it crawled at 8 mph toward South Florida.

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