Recently planted palm trees lie strewn across the road as Hurricane Irma passes by, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017, in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

MOULTRIE, Ga. — The City of Moultrie has issued a hurricane update on its website, www.moultriega.com. It includes the locations of shelters for local people who are concerned about staying in their residences as Hurricane Irma moves through our area.

It reads:

Hurricane Irma continues to be on a unpredictable powerful path. We do believe we can predict hurricane strength winds in our community early Monday morning. Now is the time to look around the outside of your homes and remove items that could become unstable in the strong winds. Move outside furniture into garages or stabilize as well as possible. Pots, garbage cans, toys, yard tools, etc should be placed indoors or stabilized as well as possible. Those items could become projectiles in the winds and cause more damage than wind alone. Now is also a time to gather food items or other necessities needed if or when power is lost. Power outages could last several hours or days. We will be attending an Irma briefing on Sunday afternoon with multiple emergency agencies and will then give more storm information. Be prepared.

Update: For those individuals who need alternative shelter, there are 3 shelters the Red Cross is suggesting that will be further from the storm. There are currently four places offering shelter from the storm in our community.

1) Heritage Church located on the corner of Pavo Road and Gene McQueen Road will be open from 6:00 p.m. Sunday to 6:00 p.m. on Monday.

2) Meredith Gym located at 1020 4th street, SW will be open 6:00 p.m. Sunday to 6:00 p.m. on Monday.

3) The Moultrie Police Department will have limited space available Monday 3:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

4) Kingwood Baptist Church.

Please understand the above shelters are not Red Cross Shelters, so you will need to arrive with your own food, blanket, pillow, and water.

Additional locations are:

1) Albany, GA Civic Center

2) Tifton, GA Community Center

3) Cordele, GA Blackshear School.

Please call the Red Cross for more information concerning shelters. You can contact them by calling 229-436-4845.

In addition, the city posted other information on its Facebook page about 10 a.m. Sunday:

As of right now, we hope you have your plans in place for the storm. If you need to leave your home or community, do so now. If you plan on going to a local shelter, you should go when they open around 6:00 p.m.

Power: Please understand we are expecting widespread outages. Power could be out for hours or days. Be prepared. After the storm you can call 668-6000 to report your outage.

During the storm: Stay inside. Do not travel.

After the storm: Be cautious before you go outside after the storm. Stay away from ANY down lines. Report downed lines at 668-6000.

Downed trees/flooding : We will have trees down and localized flooding. You can report trees and flooding by calling 668-5423. If you call this number and can do not reach anyone after the storm that means our phones are down. At that time you can call 911.

911: Please only use the 911 line for emergencies.

We will give you a live update after our 2:00 p.m. briefing this afternoon.

Local shelters: (you will need to provide your own food and water)
1. Gym located at the Jim Buck Goff Recreation Complex. (West of cvs) open 6:00 p.m. Sunday for 24 hours.
2. Heritage Church located on the corner of Pavo Road and Gene McQueen Road. Open 6:00 p.m. for 24 hours.
3. Kingwood Baptist Church located on Veterans Parkway next door to KFC. Open 5:00 p.m. Sunday for 24 hours.