Rubio on Hurricane Irma: ‘Don’t be the guy that gets killed’ by falling tree

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Saturday stressed the seriousness of Hurricane Irma, urging people in Florida to listen to officials as the storm barrels toward the state.

Rubio noted during a press conference that tropical storm winds “are serious winds, that stuff blows off tiles, knocks down trees.”

“Don’t be the guy that gets killed by the tree,” Rubio said.

The Florida senator urged residents to not play amateur meteorologist and warned against people leaving their homes during the storm. 

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“Where you going? Everything is closed. If you don’t lose power, that’s great. It’s a great time to get at home and catch up on ‘Game of Thrones,’ or whatever its called,” he said. 

“You’ve already made preparations, you are in place, it’s going to be dangerous out there. If you’re near water, you know the storm surge threat and all that it poses,” he continued. 

Rubio’s comments comes as Irma takes aim at the Tampa Bay area, which has not been hit by a major hurricane since 1921.

“If you have loved ones in the Tamp Bay region, and they’re anywhere near water, they need to look at that map and they need to move,” Rubio said. 

The storm is expected to move up the northern coast of Cuba on Saturday, before reaching the Florida Keys early Sunday morning and the state’s southwestern coast on Sunday afternoon. 

While the storm was downgraded from a Category 4 to a Category 3 storm, Irma is expected to gain strength as it nears Florida.