Hurricane Irma makes landfall in Cuba as Category 5
HAVANA (Reuters) — Hurricane Irma strengthened and made landfall in Cuba late on Friday as a Category 5 storm, as millions of Florida residents were ordered to evacuate after the storm killed 21 people in the eastern Caribbean and left catastrophic destruction in its wake.
Irma struck Camaguey Archipelago with 260 kph winds, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in an advisory. Category 5 is the NHC’s most powerful designation.
Irma, one of the fiercest Atlantic storms in a century, was expected to hit Florida this morning, bringing massive damage from wind and flooding to the fourth-largest state by population.
The State ordered the evacuation of 5.6 million residents or 25 percent of the total population, according to the Florida Division of Emergency Management. The scenes along Cuba’s north central coast were gradually coming to resemble the horrors of those of other Caribbean islands over the last week as Irma barreled in for a direct hit at Ciego de Avila province around midnight.
Choppy seas, grey skies, sheets of rain, bending palm trees, huge waves crashing over sea walls and downed power lines filled state-run television’s evening news cast.
Irma was forecast to bring dangerous storm surges of up to 10 feet on parts of Cuba’s northern coast and the central and northwestern Bahamas.
Meteorologists warned that scenes of far greater devastation were sure to emerge as Irma worked her way along the northern coast westward through Sancti Spiritus and Villa Clara provinces where it is forecast to turn northward toward Florida.
The area is home to pristine keys with more than 50 hotels and fine beaches, vital money makers for the cash-strapped government.
Residents in the central province of Camaguey hunkered down on Friday night.
“There are really strong gusts of wind. It is pouring off and on, and the lights are out,” Anaida Gonzalez, a retired nurse, said by telephone.
Irma was about 485 km southeast of Miami, the NHC said in its latest advisory.
With the storm barreling toward the US, officials ordered a historic evacuation in Florida that has been made more difficult by clogged highways, gasoline shortages and the challenge of moving older people.
The US has been hit by only three Category 5 storms since 1851, and Irma is far larger than the last one in 1992, Hurricane Andrew, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
“We are running out of time. If you are in an evacuation zone, you need to go now. This is a catastrophic storm like our state has never seen,” Gov. Rick Scott told reporters.
No Filipino casualty was reported in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in the Carribean islands. — Foreign Affairs Sec. Alan Peter Cayetano