TAYLOR COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) — Taylor County Elementary School was supposed to open as the only Hurricane Idalia shelter in Taylor County, however, emergency workers shut down the shelter before the storm's arrival and urged county residents to leave town and head north and west.
That decision was made as the forecast became clearer and Taylor County became more at risk.
Mandatory evacuation orders were in effect for people who live in mobile homes or sub-standard housing.
The sheriff's office implemented a county-wide curfew for all roads at 8 p.m. until further notice.
While Doctors' Memorial Hospital will be staffed throughout the evening, they've asked people with urgent medical needs to leave the county for a safer location.
"There's going to come a time in the late evening into the night and tomorrow morning where you can't get here because the weather is going to be impossible for people to navigate and EMS will not respond until the storm has settled down," Doctors' Memorial Hospital vic president of operations Sara Grambling said. "People need to really be smart."
