Record breaking Hurricane Irma bears down on Caribbean
Armed with the most powerful winds ever recorded for a storm in the Atlantic Ocean, Hurricane Irma bore down Tuesday on the Leeward Islands of the northeast Caribbean on a path that could take it toward Florida over the weekend.
The storm, a dangerous Category 5, posed an immediate threat to the small islands of the northern Leewards, including Antigua and Barbuda, as well as the British and U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. “The Leeward Islands are going to get destroyed,” warned Colorado State University meteorology professor Phil Klotzbach, a noted hurricane expert. “I just pray that this thing wobbles and misses them. This is a serious storm.”
Irma had maximum sustained winds of 185 mph (295 kph) as it approached the Caribbean from the east, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. Four other storms have had winds that strong in the overall Atlantic region but they were in the Caribbean Sea or the Gulf of Mexico, which are home to warmer waters that fuel cyclones. Hurricane Allen hit 190 mph in 1980, while 2005’s Wilma, 1988’s Gilbert and a 1935 great Florida Key storm all had 185 mph winds. What makes Irma so strong is unusually warm waters for that part of the Atlantic.
The centre of Irma Tuesday afternoon was about 290 kilometres east of Antigua and about 295 kilometres eastsoutheast of Barbuda on Tuesday afternoon, prompting an ominous warning from officials as the airport closed.
People in the two-island nation should seek protection from Irma’s “onslaught,” officials warned in a statement, closing with: “May God protect us all.”
The storm was moving west at 22 kph, and the hurricane centre said there a growing possibility that the storm’s effects could be felt in Florida later this week and over the weekend.
If it stays on the forecast track and reaches the Florida Straits, the water there is warm enough that the already “intense” storm could become much worse with wind speeds potentially reaching 225 kph, warned Kerry Emanuel, an MIT meteorology professor.
“People who are living there (the Florida Keys) or have property there are very scared, and they should be,” Emanuel said. The storm’s eye was expected to pass about 80 kilometres from Puerto Rico late Wednesday.