A nerve-jangling dispatch from Florida
▶ As Irma hits land, Florida prepares to minimise damage and loss of life, Rob Crilly reports from Fort Lauderdale
A dark night gave way to a dark day as Hurricane Irma began its assault on Florida yesterday, slamming into the Florida Keys, sending rain squalling across the state and leaving the land in twilight.
The Category 4 hurricane battered the Keys with 215kph winds as tornadoes spiralled off its storm front farther north. “Pray for us,” was the simple message from Rick Scott, the Florida governor, as he appeared on morning news shows.
After hitting the southerly island chain, Irma was expected to track north taking its potentially deadly trail of destruction up the western Gulf coast of Florida.
The national weather service in Key West issued a last-minute warning for those who had decided to stay on in the Keys.
“If you are here, please go to an interior room away from windows,” it said. “Treat these imminent extreme winds as if a tornado was approaching and move immediately to the safe room in your shelter.
“Take action now to protect your life. You should already be taking cover.”
Residents had already been told by one official that staying would be “almost like suicide”.
Some of those who refused to leave found rooms at the La Concha Hotel on Key West, thought to be one of the safest buildings on the island.
“It’s a little like the Titanic right now,” Kim Sylar, a teacher and longtime resident told
The Miami Herald before the storm arrived. “But I have a feeling it will be OK.”
Elsewhere, Irma was making her force felt all across southern Florida.
In Fort Lauderdale, daylight never arrived. The city stayed in twilight beneath a grey sky that shed thick sheets of rain. Wind speeds hit 110kph in gusts, bending palm trees almost horizontal and stripping leaves from branches.
Authorities across the county extended an overnight curfew until today as they tried to keep roads clear for emergency services.
Throughout the night, residents’ phones buzzed with tornado warnings from the national weather centre as forecasters monitored spiralling storms splitting off the fast-moving hurricane front.
One water spout was caught on camera and a second twister was caught on radars, smashing across land to the north of Fort Lauderdale.
At the Crossland Hotel guests watched nervously through storm-proof windows as the car park filled with rainwater.
Ostar Reyes, a roofer, said the rest of his family had headed north as Irma closed in but he was worried he would not be able to get home for weeks if he left.
“There was an evacuation order on my home so this seemed like the best place to come,” he said.
He had brought Layla, his six-month-old pit bull terrier, out of his room for a breath of fresh air. But she sat cowering at his feet in the face of the squalling rain. “This is a bad one,” said Mr Reyes as he tried to comfort her.
In Miami, 70 kilometres south of Fort Lauderdale, police warned residents that they were on their own after 9am.
“Our officers are now sheltered for their safety. We cannot respond to calls for service. Stay indoors, DO NOT venture out,” they said on Twitter.
Even so, the two cities have had a let-off. Irma’s late change of direction, an 11th-hour shift to the west, spared the eastern, Atlantic coast the worst of the devastation.
But authorities spent yesterday warning residents not to let down their guard.
The mayor of Miami Beach, Philip Levine, said the centre of the storm – the eyewall – was not the only part of Irma that could inflict damage.
“The storm is so huge it doesn’t make a difference if the actual core centre doesn’t go over Miami, Miami Beach,” he said. “We are still receiving and going to be receiving hurricane force winds and of course we are very concerned about the tidal surges.”
Residents of Miami’s highrise towers were warned to stay away from the windows as winds began to hit 150kph.
Nearly seven million people across the south-east were told to get out of the storm’s path, including 6.4 million in Florida.
Mr Scott, the Republican governor, said he had spoken to president Donald Trump, and “everything I’ve asked out of the federal government, he’s made sure he gave us”.
He said his main worry was storm surges that could reach as high as four-and-a-half metres in south-west Florida.
“It’s hard to believe anybody will survive that,” he said.
The governor has activated all 7,000 members of the Florida national guard, and 30,000 guardsmen from elsewhere are on standby.
Florida utility officials said more than one million customers had lost power by yesterday morning, a figure that is expected to rise.
As many as nine million people may ultimately be without power. The Florida Power and Light company said it would have to completely rebuild part of its system, which would take weeks.
Take action now to protect your life. You should already be taking cover US NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE Key West, Florida