Florida pummelled as Irma roars in
Yet IMF loathe to forgive devastated Barbuda’s R39m debt
ANNOUNCING itself with fierce 210km/h winds, Hurricane Irma ploughed into the mostly emptied-out Florida Keys early yesterday for the start of what could be a slow, ruinous march up the state’s west coast towards the TampaSt Petersburg area.
With an estimated 70 000 people huddling in shelters across the state, the storm lashed the low-lying string of islands with drenching rain and knocked out power to close to 400 000 consumers across the state.
About 30 000 people heeded orders to evacuate the Florida Keys as the storm closed in, but an untold number refused to leave, in part because to many storm-hardened residents, staying behind in the face of danger is a point of pride.
While the projected track showed Irma raking the state’s Gulf Coast, forecasters strongly warned that the entire Florida peninsula – including the Miami metropolitan area of 6 million people – was in danger from the monstrous storm.
Nearly 7 million people in the southeast were warned to get out of the storm’s path, including 6.4 million in Florida.
As the hurricane’s eye approached the Keys early yesterday, 60-year-old Carol Walterson Stroud and her family were huddled in a third-floor apartment at a seniors’ centre in Key West.
“We are good so far,” she said in a text messageat 5.30am. “It’s blowing hard.”
Key West police urged anyone riding out the storm in that city to “resist the urge” to go outside during the eye, the deceptive calm interlude in the middle of a hurricane. “Dangerous winds will follow quickly,” police said in a Facebook post.
Irma was at one time the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the open Atlantic, with a peak wind speed of 300km/h last week.
It left more than 20 people dead across the Caribbean, and as it moved north over the Gulf of Mexico’s warm water of nearly 320C, it regained strength.
Forecasters said Irma could hit the Tampa-St Petersburg areas today.
The Tampa Bay area has not taken a direct hit from a major hurricane since 1921, when its population was about 10 000, National Hurricane Center spokesperson Dennis Feltgen said. Now about 3 million people live there.
The governor activated all 7 000 members of the Florida National Guard, and 30 000 guardsmen from elsewhere were on standby. In the Orlando area, Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and Sea World, as well as the Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and Orlando airports, were closed on Saturday.
Given its mammoth size, strength and its projected course, Irma could prove one of the most devastating hurricanes ever to hit Florida and inflict damage on a scale not seen in 25 years.
Hurricane Andrew smashed into suburban Miami in 1992 with winds topping 265km/h, damaging or blowing apart more than 125 000 homes. The damage in Florida totalled $26 billion, and at least 40 people died. – AP
WHILE Barbuda, part of the Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, continues to reel from having almost all its infrastructure and 95% of its homes destroyed by Hurricane Irma, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has rejected a moratorium proposal to discuss the island’s $3 million (R39m) debt.
The refusal even to discuss the funds owed by the tiny Caribbean island came from Christopher Lane, the financial institution’s special representative to the UN.
“Our general view is that we’d rather put new money in than to have a moratorium,” Lane said.
The IMF’s position was that the institution may borrow funds from the US and loan them to Antigua, he said.
“If we don’t get paid back on time, we’d have to make an arrangement with the source of the funds themselves,” Lane added.
While Antigua was spared from Hurricane Irma’s devastating and deadly churn, the eye of the storm passed directly over Barbuda.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne characterised the storm as landing like a “bomb” over Barbuda.
Although the IMF may be unmoved to forgive or discuss the terms of Barbuda’s debt, Cuba has dispatched a medical brigade and Venezuela is airlifting over 10 tons of supplies as well as rescue personnel to the ravaged island.
Meanwhile, Irma has been pounding Cuba’s northern coast and was yesterday barrelling towards Florida as a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 230km/h. It was predicted to bring with it up to 50cm of rain when it made landfall yesterday.
US authorities scrambled to complete an unprecedented evacuation of millions of residents from Florida hours before the storm made landfall, and shelters were reaching their maximum capacity in several parts of the state.
Weather authorities extended the flood warning until today as Irma is expected to produce heavy rainfall in Florida and Georgia.
About six million residents left the state but about 76 000 people remained in Florida’s danger zone, many without electricity.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Jose was expected to hit the French islands of Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy (St Barts) in the Caribbean as a Category 4. At least 23 people in the Caribbean had been killed by yesterday during the storms.