Effective immediately ... officials are issuing a general resident evacuation for all residents living from the Seven Mile Bridge through Key West due to Tropical Storm Rita, which is expected to mature into Hurricane Rita later Monday.

The National Hurricane Center is telling us that there is some risk that Rita might reach category three status as it approaches the Keys.

I would like to think that people pay attention.

We don't want to get caught. We want to make sure that by Friday night, we are all set. All of this could change if the track changes or slows down.

We cannot have people just breaking in and taking weapons and ammunition. That's something no one even thought about until we watched the news from New Orleans.

This is our fourth storm but this one is really aggressive. This one we are taking seriously. The damage is going to be substantial.

Our policy is to call for a general evacuation in areas that might be prone to Category 3 impacts.