Many major events in the Tampa Bay area are being shut down on Thursday and Friday in advance of Hurricane Irma’s potential to make landfall this weekend in the Sunshine State.
That include Thursday’s Suncoast Tiger Bay forum between St. Petersburg city council candidates Barclay Harless and Brandi Gabbard at the St. Pete Yacht Club, which won’t be happening now.
Officials with the club made the announcement on Wednesday, attributing the cancellation to the fact that Pinellas County schools will be closed, as well as “the general mood of exodus” in the words of Suncoast Tiger Bay Vice President Kelly Kirschner.
Unlike the District 6 race (which had a primary election on Aug. 29), Harless and Gabbard have yet to engage in a formal one-on-one forum, which made the Tiger Bay event significant in the trajectory of their race.
Tiger Bay officials say they will announce a new date once the storm has passed.
The next official event on the Suncoast Tiger Bay’s schedule will be Orlando attorney/businessman John Morgan on Wednesday Sept. 27. Morgan continues to flirt with a potential gubernatorial run. He has said he won’t officially decide if he’ll be a candidate until 2018.