Leaving to the Atlanta area or further N is the "safe" and smart thing to do. There is no where safe in Florida.
Nearly the whole state will be under water, even the structures which survive the Cat 4 winds. Irma will be sucking up a lot of hot energy and water in the day it spends passing by Andros Island in the Bahamas (water there is 90+ F.)
This storm dwarfs Andrew (the most destructive Florida hurricane in US history destroying or damaging 185,000 structures and costing nearly 27 BILLION dollars) because of its geographical size, storm surge and rain content. It will not quickly fizzle out hitting the coast.
-Pv-
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