Florida braces for hurricane irma as storm batters cuba

HAVANA: Hurricane Irma weakened slightly on Saturday as it battered Cuba’s northern coast while millions of Florida residents were told to evacuate after the storm killed 21 people in the eastern Caribbean and left devastation in its wake. Downgraded as a Category 4 storm, Irma moved along the Camaguey Archipelago with 155 mph (250 kph) winds early on Saturday, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Irma, one of the fiercest Atlantic storms in a century, was expected to hit Florida early on Sunday, causing major damage due to high winds and flooding to the fourth-largest US state by population. Irma was forecast to bring dangerous storm surges of up to six feet to parts of the island’s northern coast and the central and northwestern Bahamas. Meteorologists warned that by early Saturday far greater devastation was sure to be caused as Irma moved westward through Sancti Spiritus and Villa Clara provinces where it is forecast to turn towards Florida. Irma ravaged small islands in the northeastern Caribbean, including Barbuda, St. Martin and the British and US Virgin Islands, flattening homes and hospitals and ripping down trees. But even as they came to grips with the destruction, residents of the islands faced the threat of another major storm, Hurricane Jose. Jose, expected to reach the northeastern Caribbean on Saturday, is an extremely dangerous storm ne, with winds of up to 150 mph (240 kph), the NHC said.