MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said the county will open 43 shelters by Friday night, including more pet-friendly shelters.
The county has opened numerous shelters since Thursday and the National Guard and Red Cross helped open an additional shelter Friday at the Robert Morgan Educational Center after a few shelters filled to capacity.
Hundreds of people lined up in hopes of getting inside the shelter, but it quickly filled up and many had to be turned away.
"I'm here with my family. As you can see, it is hectic out here," Demetrius Harris told Local 10 News before making the line. "We have no water or anything and it's very hot. I have my daughter out here. We're from Naranja, Florida, so we were in a flood zone. So we're here with my whole family. We're just trying to make it in."
Gimenez said the 43 shelters will have a total capacity of 100,000 people.
The mayor said Miami-Dade County can expect unsafe weather conditions by Saturday morning and throughout Sunday.
"The time to prepare for the storm is now," Gimenez said. "By now, you should have, at the very least, supplies and food for at least three days."
Gimenez reminded residents that the county's tap water is safe to drink.
"Fill up your bottles, fill up your pots, pans -- fill any and all containers you have with water," Gimenez said. "After the storm, we expect our water system to also be working, but just in case, fill as much as you can. You don't have to buy bottled water."
A mandatory evacuation order is in effect for all mobile homes, barrier islands and all of Zone A, Zone B, and portions of Zone C.
Gimenez said the evacuation order affects more than 660,000 residents of Miami-Dade County.
Click here to enter your address to see if you reside within a mandatory evacuation zone.
County officials are also making sure that the homeless community finds safe shelter during the storm.
The Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust said more than 1,000 people live on the streets in Miami, and only 300 have been evacuated so far.
Many are willingly moving to shelters, but some have to be detained under the Baker Act law, which allows officers to hospitalize people with mental illness against their will.
The Associated Press was there as Miami police handcuffed one man to evacuate a waterfront park. Another man resisted until police threatened to hospitalize him instead.
Ron Book, who works with the homeless trust, said anybody who stays on the streets during this storm is "going to die."
Below is a list of shelters in Miami-Dade County:
- North Miami Beach Senior High School, 1247 NE 167th St., North Miami Beach
- South Miami Senior High School, 6856 SW 53th St., Miami (FULL)
- Felix Varela Senior High School, 15255 SW 96th St., Miami (FULL)
- Miami-Dade County Fair and Exhibition (PET FRIENDLY), 10901 Coral Way, Miami (FULL)
- Miami Carol City Senior High School, 3301 Miami Gardens Drive, Miami Gardens
- Miami Central Senior High School, 1781 NW 95th St., Miami
- North Miami Senior High School, 13110 NE Eighth Ave., North Miami (FULL)
- Hialeah Gardens Senior High School, 11700 Hialeah Gardens Blvd., Hialeah
- Barbara Goleman Senior High School, 14100 NW 89th Ave., Miami Lakes
- Hialeah Middle School, 6027 E. Seventh Ave., Hialeah
- TERRA Environmental High School, 11005 SW 84th St., Miami (FULL)
- Robert Morgan Educational Center at 18180 SW 122nd Ave., Miami (FULL)
- Ronald W. Reagan/Doral Senior High School at 8600 NW 107th Ave, Doral
- Highland Oaks Middle School at 2375 NE 203rd St., North Miami (PET FRIENDLY)
- Country Club Middle School at 18305 NW 75th Place, Miami
- W. R. Thomas Middle School at 13001 SW 26th St.
- South Dade Senior High School at 28401 SW 167th Ave. in Homestead
- Coral Park Senior High School at 8865 SW 16th St. in Miami
- Lakes Stevens Middle School at 18484 NW 48th Place in Miami Gardens
- American Senior High School at 18350 NW 67th Ave. in Hialeah
- Hammocks Middle School at 9889 Hammocks Blvd. in Miami
- G. Holmes Braddock Senior High School at 3601 SW 147th Ave. in Miami
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