Irma wreaks havoc on Florida
Storm weakens, leaving behind it a trail of destruction
Hurricane Irma gave Florida a coast-to-coast pummelling with winds up to 210km/h yesterday, swamping homes and boats, knocking out power to millions and toppling massive construction cranes over the Miami skyline.
The 640km-wide storm blew ashore in the mostly cleared-out Florida Keys, then marched up its western coast, its punishing winds extending clear across to Miami and West Palm Beach on the Atlantic side.
Irma’s core was nearing the heavily populated Tampa-St Petersburg area, moving inland in a much-weakened state. While it arrived in Florida a Category 4 hurricane, by nightfall it was down to a Category 1 with winds of 135km/h. Meanwhile, more than 160,000 people waited in shelters statewide as Irma headed up the coast.
There were no immediate reports of deaths in Florida.
In the Caribbean, at least 25 were people were killed during Irma’s destructive trek.
Bryan Koon, Florida’s emergency management director, said yesterday that authorities had only scattered information about the storm’s toll, but he remained hopeful.
“I’ve not heard of catastrophic damage. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It means it hasn’t gotten to us yet,” Koon said.
In the low-lying Keys, where a storm surge of over 3m was recorded, appliances and furniture were seen floating away, and Monroe County spokeswoman Cammy Clark said the ocean waters were filled with navigation hazards, including sunken boats. But the full extent of Irma’s wrath there was not clear.
The county administrator, Roman Gastesi, said crews would begin house-to-house searches today to check on survivors. And an airborne relief mission, led by C-130 military cargo planes, was gearing up to bring emergency supplies to the Keys.
Many streets were flooded in downtown Miami and other cities.
In downtown Miami, two of the two dozen construction cranes looming over the skyline collapsed in the wind. A third crane was reported down in Fort Lauderdale. No injuries were reported.
A Miami woman who went into labour was guided through delivery by phone when authorities couldn’t reach her because of high winds and street flooding. Firefighters later took her to the hospital.
Curfews were imposed in Miami, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and much of the rest of South Florida, and some arrests of violators were reported. Miami Beach barred outsiders from the island.
More than 3.3 million homes and businesses across the state lost power, and it could take weeks to restore electricity to everyone.
While Irma raked Florida’s Gulf Coast, forecasters warned that the entire state was in danger because of the sheer size of the storm.
In one of the largest US evacuations, nearly 7 million people in the southeast were warned to seek shelter elsewhere, including 6.4 million in Florida alone.
Along the Gulf Coast, two manatees became stranded after Hurricane Irma sucked the water out of Sarasota Bay, in Florida’s Manatee County. Several people posted photos of the mammals on Facebook amid reports rescuers were able to later drag them to deeper water.
After leaving Florida, a weakened Irma was expected to push into Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and beyond. A tropical storm warning was issued for the first time ever in Atlanta, 320km from the sea.
President Donald Trump approved a disaster declaration for Florida, opening the way for federal aid.
“Once this system passes through, it’s going to be a race to save lives and sustain lives,” Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Brock Long said on Fox News.
Florida’s Governor activated all 7000 members of the Florida National Guard, and 10,000 guardsmen from elsewhere were being deployed.
Irma at one time was the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the open Atlantic, a Category 5 with a peak wind speed of 300km/h, and its approach set off alarm in Florida.
For days, forecasters had warned Irma was taking dead aim at the Miami area and the rest of the state’s Atlantic coast.
But then Irma made a more pronounced westward shift — the result of what meteorologists said was an atmospheric tug-of-war between weather systems that nudged Irma’s crucial right turn into Florida’s Gulf Coast.