MOULTRIE, Ga. — It’s 500 miles from South Georgia to Miami, but as Hurricane Irma takes aim at the Florida metropolis, Georgians are watching closely.

The storm hit Caribbean islands early Wednesday with 185-mph winds, a Category 5 monster that has been described as the strongest Atlantic hurricane on record.

Meteorologists have mapped a cone in which the storm is likely to travel. Miami sits right in the middle of it, and the storm is expected to be in the neighborhood of that city Sunday morning. Weather websites and TV reports have emphasized how far out those predictions are and how uncertain a storm’s exact path is days in advance.

The uncertainty surrounding the storm’s path has residents of four states — Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas — in a frenzy to get supplies or evacuate ahead of the storm’s landfall in the United States. Preparation efforts since Monday have left much of the south without gasoline, water, plywood and other storm-related items as reports of price gauging in the region grow. Residents of Florida’s west coast, Louisiana, and even Texas are paying closer attention to its track.

“Everybody’s gearing up for the worst,” Moultrie City Manager Pete Dillard said at a city council work session Tuesday. The utilities and public works departments are stockpiling supplies they’ll need if destructive weather comes this way, he said.

Customers waste no time grabbing what limited supplies of water surface at a Walmart in Valdosta, Georgia. 

As Florida officials urge residents to heed evacuation orders, a sizable number of people have already sought to beat the rush with a number of them coming to the South Georgia region and north to Atlanta.

In Valdosta, Georgia, about an hour’s drive from the Florida line, some gas pumps were already reported empty Thursday with most clerks unsure of when the next shipment is coming. Stations in the city with fuel will have those hoping to fill up paying over $2.50 per gallon.

Tommie Beth Willis, president of the Moultrie-Colquitt County Chamber of Commerce, told the Moultrie City Council Tuesday that she had called local motels and found them to be booked up.

The Georgia Department of Transportation said Tuesday that contractors will be opening all northbound lanes of Interstate 75, sweeping the shoulders and checking storm drains in early preparations for the storm’s potential impact.

“Although the track of the hurricane and its impact on this area of the state are unknown at this time, Georgia DOT is making preparations for potential increased traffic due to evacuations and possible heavy rainfall and/or storm damage,” the DOT press release said. “If needed, department personnel from other areas of the state are prepared to mobilize in Tifton.”

Hall writes for the Moultrie, Georgia Observer. The Valdosta, Georgia Daily Times contributed details to this story.