Carter, Rodgers brace themselves as Irma approaches Florida

As evacuation orders spread across the state of Florida, two Roughriders are hoping for the best for their friends and family.

Hurricane Irma, a category five storm, is on a collision course with the sunshine state and is expected to be the strongest storm to hit Florida since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Despite this, receiver Duron Carter said his girlfriend and dog, as well as many friends and family, are shuttering in place and waiting out the storm from their homes.

“If you’re confident nothing is going to happen, you’re pretty crazy. It’s a hurricane. It’s 200 mile an hour winds, there’s rain, there’s trees flying everywhere, there’s cars moving around, it’s really dangerous. You just have to stay ready,” he explained.

And he thinks his family is, as they’ve been through big storms before.

“I feel like I have a pretty well-built house, and hopefully it will still be there after this week,” he said.

Kacy Rodgers, who attended the University of Miami, said he also has many loved ones who have chosen to ride out the storm.

He’s worried but is keeping in contact the best he can.

“It’s a little sensitive, but I’ve been checking up on my family down there. A lot of them, they’re from there so they’re kind of bunkering in trying to weather the storm out so we’ll see how it goes.”

Rodgers is from central Texas so he didn’t know much about hurricanes before he attended school in Florida. While he was there a tropical storm hit, which was unsettling enough.

“It’s pretty scary at some points, but I had a few teammates of mine who are from Florida and they kind of gave me some advice and we stuck it out,” he said.

Carter and Rodgers both said they know it will get more worrisome as the storm edges closer and power and cell phone towers go down.

Irma is expected to hit Florida on Saturday night.

“It’s kind of out of my hands at this point,” Rodgers said. “(I’ve asked) if there was anything I could do all the way from up but all I can do is pray and hope for the best.”