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Miami Mayor Said City Is Prepping For Hurricane Dorian, Residents Should Too

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - With the threat of Hurricane Dorian looming, Miami officials have two words for all residents.

Be Prepared.

"The message that I'd like to give to our residents is that they must be prepared. It' still too early to tell exactly where this hurricane is going to hit what kind of intensity it is going to be, and we saw with Hurricane Irma that it changed many times as it hit landfall, its speed and direction, so we want our residents to be prepared," said Mayor Francis Suarez.

The mayor said at the start of the hurricane season, they stressed that every resident should have an evacuation plan, they should notify their family members of where they will be if they are forced to evacuate, and they should have additional battery packs for their cellphones.

"We know that during Irma about 80 percent of the city was without power for anywhere between 10 and 14 days. So that is something that is of real concern to our residents, particularly those that are most vulnerable," said Suarez.

The mayor said the city's Emergency Operations Center has been activated on a preliminary level and it will be decided Friday if full activation is necessary.

Suarez said the city has contacted all crane operators told them they must secure their cranes.

"We saw during Hurricane Irma that multiple cranes broke or were not secured and that's a risk to public safety," he said.

Miami firefighters have gone to all of the senior centers in the city to check and make sure their generators were operational.

Suarez said they have ordered ice and water.

"We did this before Irma and found that it helped tremendously. We were able, through all of our commissioners, back when I was a commissioner, to actually go out into the community to give out ice and water to the needy residents that didn't have refrigerated power," he said.

The mayor said because of storm season and the King tides, they have cleaned all the gutters and drainage systems. They have three vacuum trucks that are on stand-by to clean gutters and drains that may become clogged with debris. Two additional pumps have been installed in the Brickell and Mary Brickell Village areas which can pump 50,000 gallons a minute.

Suarez said there are still areas that are vulnerable and if there is significant rainfall from the storm, they will experience flooding throughout the city.

The mayor said the city's "green shirts" have been going out and notifying the homeless that it was time to seek shelter.

In the event that there is a prolonged power outage, Suarez said they have a provision where they can provide food to those in need.

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