The Latest: Hermine alert wrongly calls for large evacuation
ISLIP, N.Y. – The Latest on the voluntary evacuation of Long Island’s Fire Island (all times local):
6:35 p.m.
Officials notifying Long Island TV watchers about the impact of storm system Hermine mistakenly advised an entire county to evacuate.
The truncated emergency notification was sent out Saturday night.
Suffolk County officials say Sunday they created an advisory notifying viewers that a voluntary evacuation order had been issued — but just for Fire Island. That’s a thin strip of land off of Long Island’s southern shore and a popular summertime destination.
But somehow the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s broadcast system only sent the first part of the message, notifying viewers across the county that an evacuation had been ordered.
Suffolk officials say as soon as they realized there was a mix-up, they sent another message to clarify.
FEMA said it was investigating what caused the message to be shortened.
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3:35 p.m.
Officials on Long Island are calling for people on Fire Island to voluntarily evacuate to avoid the storm surge, coastal flooding and other possible problems stemming from storm system Hermine.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone says the evacuation deadline is 6 p.m. Sunday. Anyone there after that will not be able to leave as ferries will not be operating, and officials say the weather conditions will make getting emergency help to anyone who needs it difficult.
Fire Island is a thin strip of land off of Long Island’s southern shore that is a popular summer destination.
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