Irma: Death toll crosses 60 as Florida picks up pieces
ISLAMORADA, FLORIDA: Evacuees from Hurricane Irma were returning to the Florida Keys on Wednesday, where sunrise gave them a first glimpse of devastation that has left countless homes and businesses in ruins.
Categorized as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, Irma claimed more than 60 lives, officials said.
At least 18 people died in Florida and destruction was widespread in the Keys, where Irma made initial US landfall on Sunday to become the second major hurricane to strike the mainland this season.
Authorities allowed re-entry to the islands of Key Largo, Tavernier and Islamorada for residents and business owners on Tuesday. The extent of the devastation took many of the first returnees by surprise.
Across Florida and nearby states, 5.8 million homes and businesses were estimated to be without power on Tuesday, down from 7.4 million on Monday.
While damage across Florida was severe, it paled in comparison with devastation wrought by Irma in parts of the Caribbean, which accounted for the bulk of the hurricane’s fatalities.
It destroyed about one-third of the buildings on the Dutch-governed portion of the eastern Caribbean island of St. Martin, the Dutch Red Cross said on Tuesday.
Irma was a post-tropical cyclone late on Tuesday as it drifted north as it brought rain to the Mississippi Valley, the National Hurricane Center said.
It hit the US soon after Hurricane Harvey, which plowed into Houston late last month, killing about 60 and causing some $180 billion in damage.