Within two hours of the first Alachua County emergency shelter opening, 10 people already settled into their temporary home during Hurricane Matthew.
At about 1:15 p.m. Thursday, Roger Jones, a 52-year-old Gainesville resident, walked into the Alachua County Senior Recreation Center, holding a blanket, a pillow and the Bible he’s had since 1978.
Although he’s lived here for 35 years, he’s never seen a storm as strong as Matthew.
“I think about the trees and the power lines — it’s very dangerous,” he said. “You never know what can happen.”
Peggy Bowman, a 68-year-old Gainesville resident, stocks up on supplies to prepare for Hurricane Matthew at the Winn-Dixie on Southwest 20th Street on Thursday afternoon. "I've been prepared, I have two freezers," she said, placing a bottle of Welch's grape jelly into her shopping cart.
Throughout Alachua County, first responders and residents prepared for the storm, estimated to be a Category 3 when the eye approaches Palm Coast, Florida, about 80 miles east of Gainesville, at about 2 p.m. today. At UF Health Shands Hospital, staff plan to stay through the day to accept new patients from coastal hospitals in the storm’s path and in Alachua County.
On Thursday afternoon, UF canceled classes after 3 p.m. and closed campus for the rest of the weekend. Just before 4 p.m., the Southeastern Conference announced the football game, scheduled for noon Saturday against Louisiana State University, will be postponed, as of press time.
“Obviously, you could not play a game under those circumstances, nor would you want to,” said UF athletics director Jeremy Foley, adding that the storm was a “potentially catastrophic event” for the state and for the city.
As of Thursday evening, Hurricane Matthew was moving northwest at a rate of about 13 mph, according to the National Weather Service. By 2 p.m. Thursday, Matthew tore through Haiti, killing an estimated 264 people and bringing the storm’s death toll to 270 people, according to the Weather Channel, as of press time.
Yezenya Martinez, a 37-year-old employee at the Shell gas station on Archer Road, posts a sign to inform customers of their outage of premium gas. The station was out of Plus gasoline and V-Power gasoline, but was checking its levels of the regular gasoline every 15 minutes.
Gainesville is expected to feel winds of more than 39 mph starting at about 6 a.m. Thursday through 2 a.m. Saturday, according to an Alachua County media release. Between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. today, winds are expected to reach 61 mph.
Thursday morning, Gov. Rick Scott held a press conference in Tallahassee, pleading with Florida residents to prepare for the worst.
"The storm has already killed people. We should expect the same impact in Florida," he said, according to the Associated Press.
At the press conference, Scott called Matthew a "life-threatening storm." He urged residents to have at least a three-day supply of food, water and medicine, according to The Weather Channel.
Mandatory evacuations were ordered for Brevard, Flagler, Indian River, Johns, Lucie, Palm Beach and Volusia Counties, as of press time. The University of Central Florida also evacuated its main campus, and for the fourth time in its history, Walt Disney World closed its doors today.
Paradise and Sheray play together in a kennel at the Alachua County Animal Services pet shelter, where they were dropped off together before their owner took shelter from the hurricane. Floridians evacuating their homes could bring their animals to the shelter to ride out Hurricane Matthew.
In Gainesville, four emergency shelters were set up, with UF planning to open one at the Reitz Union at 7 a.m. today.
At Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Elementary School, principal Daniel Burney prepared the cafeteria to shelter up to 600 people. Though the shelter isn’t primarily for pets, litter and pet food lined a wall.
If winds reach 35 mph, those with pets won’t be turned away, he said. Until then, residents were told to drop pets off with Alachua County Animal Services.
St. Augustine resident Bonnie Cooney, 36, kissed her chihuahua, Fifel, goodbye before leaving him and Toby, another chihuahua mix, at the animal services shelter. She fled with others from her mobile home due to a mandatory evacuation, despite living inland.
Dwinnie Slade, an ACAS senior office assistant, said she had been fielding calls all day from people asking about dropping off pets. By 3 p.m. Thursday, the shelter was housing six dogs and two orange cats.
“I don’t think it’s ending any time soon,” Slade said.
From left: Gainesville residents Erich Marzolf, 55, and Michael Haynes, 26, help each other make sandbags at the Alachua County Public Works Department's sandbag location, located at 11855 NW U.S. Highway 441, on Thursday morning. The men are strangers, but they are both working to prepare for possible Hurricane Matthew water buildup. “See if I can protect the front of my house," Marzolf said. "We don’t have gutters.”
Gainesville residents evacuate Florida on Interstate 75 northbound from the path of Hurricane Matthew on Thursday afternoon, while few are coming to Gainesville.
