IRMA IS GONE, BUT ONLY AFTER RAVAGING VAST AREAS OF FLORIDA AND CARIBBEAN
▶ It caused more than 50 deaths and epic destruction that will take months and billions of dollars to repair
Storm-battered Florida began the long road to recovery yesterday, as aid began arriving to cities hit by the hurricane and residents were allowed to start returning to the upper islands of the Florida Keys.
Almost two thirds of homes across the state are without power two days after Hurricane Irma hit Florida’s peninsula.
Authorities warned of fuel shortages across the south-east of the US as a result of Hurricane Irma arriving so soon after Hurricane Harvey knocked out refineries and ports in Texas.
Irma, since downgraded to a tropical storm, has been linked to 11 deaths across the United States. The latest was a 55-yearold man who died when his chainsaw was tangled in a fallen branch and cut his carotid artery.
But now the hundreds of thousands who fled the wall of wind at the end of last week can think about going home and starting the clean-up.
All around Fort Lauderdale, which missed the eye of the storm, people who stayed behind spent yesterday raking up fallen branches, repairing fences and returning satellite dishes to roofs.
Farther south, residents of the Florida Keys know they could be returning to a disaster zone. It was here that Irma roared ashore at Key Cudjoe as a Category 4 storm on Sunday.
Officials have been checking the integrity of bridges that connect the islands to the mainland and each other, and are now letting residents and business owners return to Key Largo, and the towns of Tavernier and Islamorada, farther to the south.
But residents were warned that recovery work would be painstakingly slow.
“This is going to be a frustrating event,” said Brock Long, head of the federal emergency management agency. “It’s going to take some time to let people back into their homes, particularly in the Florida Keys.”
Heather Carruthers, a local county commissioner, said that some remains of people had been found there.
Meanwhile, the US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln arrived off the east coast of Florida. It was to be joined by two amphibious assault ships to distribute food to people in the Keys and help to remove about 10,000 residents who
This is going to be a frustrating event. It’s going to take some time to let people back into their homes BROCK LONG Emergency management agency
did not leave before the storm.
President Donald Trump took to Twitter to praise the recovery: “The devastation left by Hurricane Irma was far greater, at least in certain locations, than anyone thought. But amazing people working hard.”
Elsewhere, southern airports including Fort Lauderdale and Miami International resumed limited passenger services.
Utility companies reported more than seven million homes and businesses were without electricity in Florida and neighbouring states, and warned that it could take weeks to restore a full service.
In all, the repair bill will run into tens of billions of dollars in damage and lost economic output. The cost of insurance payouts could amount to $40 billion (Dh146bn), industry sources say.
In Fort Lauderdale, lorries from a power company drove in convoy before first light as they set about trying to restore electricity supplies.
Their first priority was restoring power to traffic lights, many of which had failed. Shops gradually began to open.
“We were open yesterday,” said Nelson, owner of American Coffee Shop, one of the few diners open. “I had to get the milk myself, driving all over town to find somewhere open.”
The longest car line was not for the handful of petrol stations that had supplies, but for a McDonald’s drive-through in North Fort Lauderdale.
Many across the state are counting their blessings. It could have been worse if Irma had continued on its predicted course and slammed into Miami as a Category 4 storm. Instead it tracked west, dumping its fury on the Everglades, and weakening rapidly over land.
But Phil Klotzblache, a research scientist at Colorado State University, said it maintained winds of 300kph for 37 hours, making it “the longest any cyclone around the globe has maintained that intensity”.
Irma also held hurricane status for almost 12 days and for more than three days was a Category 5 storm. Caribbean islands bore the brunt of that intense power. Irma was responsible for nearly 40 deaths and rising.
Sir Richard Branson said most of the buildings and vegetation on his private island Necker had been destroyed or damaged.
Mr Branson said he was looking at ways to help aid agencies in their emergency response, having seen “first-hand how ferocious and unforgiving this storm was”.