Two men were involved in a physical altercation over plywood at a Home Depot store in North Miami on Tuesday.
The fight erupted as panicked Floridians formed long lines and emptied out the shelves at the store in anticipation of Hurricane Irma.
Locals in South Florida were in a rush to stock up on supplies at the Home Depot when one customer, Joshua Shempko, said he was struck by another shopper during an argument over plywood, WPLG-TV reported.
‘He just hit me,’ Shempko told a Home Depot employee moments after the altercation.
‘He grabbed me and then he lunged,’ he said.
Two men (seen far left and far right) were involved in a physical altercation over plywood at a Home Depot store in North Miami on Tuesday
Joshua Shempko says that an unidentified man ‘grabbed him and lunged’ at him while the two men were shopping for plywood
Shempko gives chase as the alleged attacker tries to escape through the main exit
‘He just hit me,’ Shempko told a Home Depot employee moments after the altercation. The other person involved in the altercation is seen right walking away
After Shempko complained to a Home Depot employee, his alleged attacker is seen walking away
Shempko was interviewed by WPLG-TV after sustaining a noticeable cut on his face.
The alleged attacker initially tried to flee the scene, though he was detained by police officers soon afterward.
Hurricane Irma dipped in intensity as it passed over Cuba, with maximum sustained wind speeds falling to 130 miles per hour, but is forecast to regain strength as it moves away from the island, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Saturday.
The storm will reach the Florida Keys on Sunday morning and is expected to be near the southwest coast of Florida on Sunday afternoon, the NHC said.
The alleged attacker tried to escape but he was detained by police officers nearby
Irma would remain a powerful hurricane as it approaches Florida, it said.
Miami was thrown a lifeline on Saturday as Hurricane Irma’s path veered west, narrowly avoiding a direct hit from the storm.
Irma is expected to move up the southwest coast as a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday, bringing with it 130mph winds and life threatening rain.
It is not likely to make landfall on US soil until the early hours of Monday when meteorologists now predict it will hit Tampa as a Category 3 storm.
Irma is so powerful that no matter where it hits and even before it does, the entire southern section of the state is at risk of storm surge, deadly wind and rain.
Nervous Floridians formed long lines at the Home Depot in North Miami to stock up on supplies
The shelves at the store (above) were emptied as locals prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Irma
More than 5million people have been evacuated in anticipation of it and 50,000 people are in shelters across the state.
On Saturday morning, Governor Rick Scott, who has been pleading with residents for days to leave evacuation zones before Irma hits, said: ‘This is a catastrophic storm. We have never seen this before. The storm is bigger than our state.’
In the largest evacuation effort in US history, millions of people in the Sunshine State and in parts of Georgia have been told to leave their home before Irma strikes on Sunday afternoon.
All of the airports in southeast Florida are now closed and anyone who is still there is being told to leave urgently or take refuge in one of the shelters being set up.
In Miami, officials admitted they were ‘rewriting the book’ as they went along to try to prepare for Irma. Evacuees who have been able to get to a shelter compared the cramped conditions inside to Guantanamo Bay.
Some people are being turned away as high schools and other public spaces reach capacity.
As of Friday night, only 21 of the 42 planned shelters in Miami Dade County, which takes in a huge swathe of the city, had been announced.
The monstrous hurricane has already claimed 24 lives in the Caribbean and wiped out entire small islands.
On Saturday morning, it had Cuba in its grip and was pounding the country with torrential rain and winds of up to 130mph.