ATLANTA – More than half of Georgia, including Lowndes County and the entire southern half of the state, is under a state of emergency as Hurricane Irma slugs its way toward Florida.

Gov. Nathan Deal vastly expanded the number of counties covered by the declaration Friday afternoon after Irma, now a Category 4 storm, turned westward. A total of 94 counties are now included.

The counties are Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Baker, Baldwin, Ben Hill, Berrien, Bibb, Bleckley, Brantley, Brooks, Bryan, Bulloch, Burke, Calhoun, Camden, Candler, Charlton, Chatham, Chattahoochee, Clay, Clinch, Coffee, Colquitt, Cook, Crawford, Crisp, Decatur, Dodge, Dooly, Dougherty, Early, Echols, Effingham, Emanuel, Evans, Glynn, Grady, Harris, Houston, Irwin, Jeff Davis, Jefferson, Jenkins, Johnson, Jones, Lamar, Lanier, Laurens, Lee, Liberty, Long, Lowndes, Macon, Marion, McIntosh, Meriwether, Miller, Mitchell, Monroe, Montgomery, Muscogee, Peach, Pierce, Pike, Pulaski, Quitman, Randolph, Schley, Screven, Seminole, Stewart, Sumter, Talbot, Tattnall, Taylor, Telfair, Terrell, Thomas, Tift, Toombs, Treutlen, Troup, Turner, Twiggs, Upson, Ware, Washington, Wayne, Webster, Wheeler, Wilcox, Wilkinson and Worth counties.

“I want to caution all Georgians that just because the weather now may appear to be calm, do not take that for granted,” Deal said at a press conference held Friday morning at the state Capitol. “This is a rapidly moving hurricane and the weather and the consequences of that hurricane can change dramatically within a relatively short period of time.”

Deal’s declaration, which now reaches as far north as Milledgeville and all the way to the Alabama line, comes with additional state assistance and protection from price gouging for fuel, hotel rooms and other products and services.

“This is a time when we’ve got to come together and help one another, not take advantage of one another,” said state Attorney General Chris Carr. “So our consumer protection unit will be monitoring and will not tolerate any price gouging in our state.”

Carr’s office had already received 54 complaints of price gouging as of Friday afternoon.

Earlier forecasts put Georgia’s coast in Irma’s crosshairs, but the monster storm’s latest projected path poses a threat to a much broader swath of the state, including farther inland than originally thought.

Homer Bryson, head of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, said Friday he was still most concerned about the threat of flooding surges, between four and eight feet, on the coast.

Bryson also cautioned the storm is still three days away from Georgia.

“The storm is still so far away,” Bryson said, urging people not to become complacent. “There are so many variables associated with where the storm can go.”

A mandatory evacuation order for coastal communities goes into effect 8 a.m. Saturday, with all four lanes of Interstate 16 going westbound at that point. There will be seven available exits. Eastbound access will be blocked as far north as Dublin, near Macon.

“We’re not going to go out and drag someone out of their home if they don’t want to leave,” Deal said. “Likewise, we’re not going to send our emergency personnel in to rescue you when there are other people who have heeded the warning and need their help.

“So when you refuse to evacuate when a mandatory order has been issued, you have said you’re going to do it on your own,” he said. “Now, we will not not respond. We will do so as the situation dictates. But we need people to help themselves.”

People evacuating are recommended to plan out a route, as well as a back-up route, in advance and to consider one of the 22 non-interstate evacuation routes available. More travel details are available at http://www.dot.ga.gov/. Drivers can also call 511 for traffic updates.

“It’s going to be a slow go,” said Russell McMurry, commissioner of the state Department of Transportation. “Please pack your patience. Hurricane evacuation routes are not meant to be interstates at interstate speed.”

Evacuees are being encouraged to venture toward north Georgia for lodging, since South Georgia shelters – including state parks – may need to be available for local residents.

But even then, people may be out of luck.

“Everybody’s full,” Jim Sprouse, executive director of the Georgia Hotel and Lodging Association, said Friday, referring to hotel rooms across the state.

Sprouse said hotels in some parts of the state filled up seemingly over night earlier in the week. He recommends people contact hotel chain offices, rather than specific locations, to locate vacancies system-wide. Another resource: Irma.georgia.org.

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for The Valdosta Daily Times and CNHI’s newspapers and websites.