From the Editor's Desk

Hurricane Idalia has strengthened into a formidable storm. We are sending our Midweek Update early this week, in order to be able to share resources with our readers that may be of use during storm preparations. 

State of Emergencies have been declared at the federal, state, and local levels. As of publication, Level A evacuation areas and those living in mobile or manufactured homes or RVs in Manatee County are under a mandatory evacuation order. In Level B evacuation areas, there is a voluntary evacuation in effect. You can find your evacuation level at mymanatee.org/manateeready. A 3 p.m. press conference is scheduled from the county emergency response center. It will be live-streamed on the county's YouTube channel or Facebook page and available on-demand afterward.

For anyone who needs transportation to a shelter, Uber is offering free round-trip rides (up to $35 each way) to and from a state-approved evacuation shelter. To redeem the offer:

• Open your app.
• Tap “Account” on the bottom right.
• Tap Wallet.
• Scroll down to “+ Add Promo Code.”
• Enter code IDALIARELIEF
• Select the Manatee state-approved Florida evacuation shelters (Freedom, Miller and Mills). *Maximum discount of up to $35 per ride. Ride offer is valid for up to two trips per rider. Driver-partner earnings will not be affected. Rides must be requested to or from any state-approved evacuation shelter in Florida. Promo code must be applied before requesting the ride for discount to apply. Discount does not apply to tips. Cannot be combined with other promotions/discounts. Terms subject to change. Limited availability.

We have temporarily embedded tweets from the National Weather Service Tampa Bay on the right side of our homepage. https://spaghettimodels.com/ is another good resource, as is Ryan Hall's channel on YouTube, the latest edition of which I've embedded below.  The most recent update from the county is also included in this edition and has information on closures and changes to garbage collection. 

Most importantly, TBT urges residents to respect the massive potential of this storm and heed all advisories in terms of evacuations and sheltering. Tomorrow's podcast has been canceled. We expect to return with normal coverage in Friday's TBT Weekender edition and will issue breaking news alerts following the storm if and when they are warranted.  Hunker down, stay safe, and we'll see you on the other side of this thing.

Mitch Maley
Editor in Chief
The Bradenton Times