National Weather Service issues all-caps warning: ‘Nowhere in the Florida Keys will be safe’

The National Weather Service sent out an all-caps warning Friday evening urging residents in the Florida Keys to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Irma, saying “this is as real as it gets.”

“Nowhere in the Florida Keys will be safe,” the weather service said in a tweet. “You still have time to evacuate.”

***THIS IS AS REAL AS IT GETS***

***NOWHERE IN THE FLORIDA KEYS WILL BE SAFE***

***YOU STILL HAVE TIME TO EVACUATE***

Please RT. #Irma pic.twitter.com/VWLMEDWoUs

— NWS Key West (@NWSKeyWest) September 8, 2017

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Hurricane Irma is projected to hit Florida late Saturday as a Category 4 storm with wind speeds as high as 155 miles per hour near the storm’s eye.

States of emergency have been declared for Florida, South Carolina, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and mandatory evacuation orders exist for much of Miami and other parts of the region.

“If you’re in an evacuation zone, you’ve got to get out,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) said Friday. “You can’t wait. The roads will get worse when it gets out. I’ve closed all the schools, K-12 to state colleges and universities, to open up more shelters.”

“We cannot save you in the middle of the storm.”

Irma will be the second hurricane to sweep through the U.S. in recent weeks, after Hurricane Harvey made landfall in southeast Texas and later Louisiana, leaving a trail of devastation.

So far, at least 23 people have died from Irma.