Irma turns Florida streets into rivers
HURRICANE Irma smashed through Florida yesterday, turning city streets into fierce rivers, knocking down homes and killing at least three.
More than 3 million lost power and schools were closed indefinitely as the 645km-wide storm devastated swathes of the entire Florida peninsula.
President Donald Trump declared a major disaster and ordered federal funds to help the state and NGO recovery work that will begin as soon as the storm allows.
“The bad news is that this is some big monster,” Mr Trump said at the White House.
While Irma, a monster event that killed at least 26 as it churned through the Caribbean and along Cuba’s coast, was downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane, the biggest concern was the storm surge it would bring to the low-lying coastal cities of Tampa and Fort Meyers.
Authorities predicted the surge could exceed 4.5m in some places and warned anyone who ignored evacuation orders in those places would probably not survive. Among those who elected to stay was former Sydney cafe owner Marlies Laaper, who rode out the hurricane in her Cape Coral cafe with her husband Uri.
“A mandatory evacuation order was announced yesterday morning for the area in Cape Coral where we live because it’s close to the water,” she said yesterday.
“So we evacuated to the building where the cafe is.
“This morning we woke up to find the mandatory evacuation area was increased to include the cafe building. We thought about going further north but to move with eight people, a dog and a cat is not so easy last minute so we decided to stay put.”
Irma made landfall as a Category 4 storm on the Florida Keys, a string of islands to the south west of mainland Florida.
Emergency workers will begin house-to-house searches overnight, looking for people who need help and assessing damage.
Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi said they suspected they would find fatalities. Relief will arrive on a C-130 military plane on Monday morning at the Key West International Airport.
Mr Gastesi says they are “prepared for the worst”.
Miami was next to be hit and suffered extensive flooding. Two construction cranes were also pushed over by winds, confirming one of the worst fears for the city which is undergoing heavy development.