Several Florida jails and prisons are refusing to evacuate their residents ahead of Hurricane Milton despite being in the evacuation zone of the storm.
Manatee county jail, which has 1,200 incarcerated people and is located on the south-east side of Tampa Bay, in the path of the hurricane that was roaring towards it across the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, will not be evacuating, a representative of the jail told Newsweek on Tuesday.
The jail falls within the Zone A evacuation area, the outlet further reported. Those in Zone A could face a storm surge of up to 11ft and are supposed to be evacuated first, according to the Manatee county evacuation guide.
“We do not issue evacuation orders lightly,” said the Manatee county public safety director, Jodie Fiske, Newsweek reported. “Milton is anticipated to cause more storm surge than [Hurricane] Helene. So, if you stayed during Helene and got lucky, I would not press my luck with this particular system.”
Hurricane Helene hit north-western Florida near Tallahassee less than two weeks ago and the impact in the state and in many states further north, especially North Carolina, remains massive.
But a deputy with Manatee county jail told Newsweek that the jail would reportedly be stocked with sandbags and other supplies and in the event of flooding residents would be moved to the top floor of the jail. The Guardian could not reach a representative of the jail for comment.
Multiple jails and prisons in hurricane-hit states have previously failed to evacuate incarcerated people during a natural disaster, despite being located in a mandatory evacuation zone.
In South Carolina, at least two prisons were not evacuated during Hurricane Florence in 2018. “In the past, it’s been safer to leave them there,” a spokesman for the South Carolina department of corrections said, the BBC reported.
During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, hundreds of incarcerated people were left in the Orleans parish prison for four days during the deadly storm. Those incarcerated were left locked in their cells amid rising flood waters and without food or water.
Other Florida jails and prisons have also said they will not evacuate during Milton. Correctional facilities in the counties of Sarasota, Hernando, Pasco, Charlotte and Lee will also remain in place during the storm, according to 10 Tampa Bay, a local outlet.
Family members of those incarcerated are worried about their loved ones’ safety.
Julie Reimer, a Florida resident, told 10 Tampa Bay that she had relatives in both the Charlotte correctional institution and Hardee correctional institution.
Reimer, who is being identified by her maiden name due to fears of retaliation, said she was told by officials in both jails that they would not be evacuating. “They said their buildings are able to sustain a storm like this,” Reimer said to 10 Tampa Bay. “They seem to think this storm is not serious.”
Reimer told 10 Tampa Bay: “When my son was sentenced, he was not given a death sentence,” she said.