Hurricane Irma powers toward Florida
PROVIDENCIALES (Reuters) — Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century, drove toward Florida yesterday as it lashed the Caribbean with devastating winds and torrential rain, leaving behind 14 deaths and a swathe of catastrophic destruction.
Irma was about 85 kilometers south of Great Inagua Island early yester day, after soaking the northern coasts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti and pummeling the Turks and Caicos Islands.
A Category 5 hurricane, the highest designation by the National Hurricane Center, the storm has grown as large as France and packed winds as strong as 290 kilometers per hour.
It was heading for the Bahamas, where it was expected to bring 20-foot storm surges before moving to Cuba and then slamming into southern Florida as a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday.
In Miami, hundreds lined up for bottled water and cars looped around city blocks to get gas on Thursday. Gasoline shortages in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area worsened on Thursday, with sales up to five times the norm.
In Palm Beach, the waterfront Mara-Lago estate owned by US President Donald Trump was ordered evacuated, media said. Trump also owns property on the French side of St. Martin, an island devastated by the storm.
A mandatory evacuation on Georgia’s Atlantic coast is due to begin today, Gov. Nathan Deal said.
Irma has ravaged a series of small islands in the northeast Caribbean, including Barbuda, St. Martin and the British and US Virgin Islands, ripping down trees and flattening homes and hospitals.
A Reuters witness described the roof and walls of a well-built house shaking hard as the storm rocked the island of Providenciales and caused a drop in pressure that could be felt in people’s chests.
Throughout the islands in its wake, shocked locals tried to comprehend the extent of the devastation — and simultaneously got ready for another major hurricane, Jose, now a Category 3 and due in the northeastern Caribbean today.