Irma’s deadly passage batters Caribbean
CAP-HAIEN, Haiti — Hurricane Irma on Thursday pounded more of the Caribbean, shredding homes and weather records and leaving at least 12 people dead as it honed in on the United States, where up to a million people were told to flee.
The evacuation of coastal areas of Florida and neighboring Georgia was the biggest seen in the US in a dozen years.
“It will be truly devastating. The entire southeastern United States better wake up and pay attention,” said Brock Long, head of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Barreling across the Caribbean, the rare Category 5 Irma wielded monster winds and torrential rain, wreaking destruction on tiny islands like Saint Martin, where 60 percent of homes were wrecked, before slamming into the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
In its westward rampage, Irma packed winds of up to 295 km/h, an intensity that it sustained for 33 hours — the longest of any storm since satellite monitoring began in the 1970s.
The International Red Cross said 1.2 million people had already been hit by Irma, a number that could rise to 26 million.
On many islands, roofs were ripped off buildings, shipping containers were tossed aside like matchsticks and debris was flung far and wide. Airports, seaports and mobile phone networks were knocked out.
At least two people were killed in Puerto Rico, a senior rescue official said.
More than half of the territory’s population of three million was without power, with rivers breaking their banks in the center and north of the island.
Governor Ricardo Rossello activated the National Guard and opened storm shelters sufficient for up to 62,000 people.
Authorities on the US Virgin Islands also reported four deaths.
“We lost a significant number of assets ... in terms of fire stations, police stations,” Governor Kenneth Mapp said in a Facebook post, adding that the region’s main health facility, the Schneider Regional Medical Center, had lost its roof.
The US National Hurricane Center said on Friday that Irma had weakened to a Category 4 storm but remains a powerful hurricane.
It said Irma’s maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 250 km/h. The hurricane center said some fluctuations in strength are likely over the next day or two but Irma was expected to stay a Category 4 storm.