Nova Scotians living in Florida prepare for Hurricane Irma

Nova Scotians living in Florida are preparing for the worst should Hurricane Irma hit the state over the weekend.

According to the National Weather Service in Miami, Irma as measured by wind speed is the most powerful hurricane to form in the Atlantic Ocean, with sustained winds of 295 km/h.

Sandy Pirie is originally from Halifax. He moved to central Florida last year and now works as a dentist in Orlando.

Supplies running low

He told CBC's Mainstreet on Thursday that he's placed hurricane windows on the back of his house but not on the other three sides.

"So it's the other half of my house that I'm kind of worried about because it's just a standard single-pane glass which, if we get a Category 3 wind and you're getting debris blowing around, that's not very good," Pirie said.

He plans to board up as many windows as he can. But that could be difficult because supplies are running low.

Monday night, he bought 10 sheets of plywood and three sheets of Plexiglas at a local hardware store.

"I went back the next day and there wasn't too much left there," he said. "You could buy $70-grade sheets ... but it's kind of expensive to do your windows that way."

Gas cans, bottled water and generators were also in short supply at stores in his area.

"You really gotta plan almost as soon as you hear these things," Pirie said.

Lessons from Hurricane Juan

Pirie still has a small generator with him that he bought after Hurricane Juan in Halifax in 2003 to run a few small appliances in his house should Hurricane Irma hit with a vengeance.

He's also cut down some branches and trees on his property.

Pirie is worried about losing power for long period of time. He knows evacuation from his concrete home is a possibility.

"We're probably better to stay put than to get on the roads," he said.

"I would think the biggest concern probably for somebody that has a choice about leaving is you also would have to be concerned with that traffic getting out of here."

19 named storms predicted

In August, the National Weather Service in the U.S. predicted an active hurricane season with up to 19 named storms. That number has already reached 11.

"We're right into the peak of hurricane season," said Bob Robicheau, a forecaster with the Canadian Hurricane Centre. "The statistical peak is Sept. 10. So we're right near that peak of hurricane season.

"As expected, we're seeing a lot of storms out there in the last couple of weeks and it's probably going to continue on for a ways to go yet," Robicheau said.

No imminent threat in Nova Scotia

Once Irma, now a Category 5 hurricane, reaches southern Florida, it's going to make a turn toward the north and start to accelerate a little bit, Robicheau said.

"We still expect that the storm will be somewhere in the southeastern part of the U.S. by early next week," Robicheau said.

"Right after landfall they typically tend to lose a lot of their intensity fairly quickly."

However, he said, there's still uncertainty about what's going to happen after that.

"There doesn't look like there's any imminent threat for us up here in Nova Scotia beyond into next week."