If there’s one thing this country doesn’t need right now is another hurricane.

However, as we inch closer to that point in time when it is no longer too soon to worry, Irma’s landfall is beginning to take on a feeling of inevitability.

As this massive storm, one that the National Hurricane Center is calling, “A potentially catastrophic Category 5 hurricane,” rolls west through the Atlantic Ocean, most computer models predict the storm will make a right turn and head north. Unfortunately, those same models predict Irma probably won’t make that turn until it reaches Florida.

It has become somewhat fashionable to bash media outlets that predict the doom and gloom of an impending natural disaster.

Those same warnings, however, often save the lives of those who take heed to get out of harm’s way. Our television screens over the last week have been filled with images of folks along the Gulf Coast who, in hindsight, probably wish they had.

It is still too early to know whether or not Irma will directly impact us, but it’s never too early to pay close attention and have a plan should she come our way.