Irma’s alligator menace
Peril for thousands in Florida disaster
KILLER alligators are now roaming the flooded streets of Florida after the US state’s battering by Hurricane Irma that has left thousands of people facing chaotic conditions.
ALLIGATORS are roaming the streets of Florida after Hurricane Irma battered the state.
The region was left flooded after it was hit by 130mph winds in the “strongest storm ever” yesterday.
An alligator was filmed stalking the streets in knee-deep water as millions of residents and holidaymakers struggled without power, water and food.
The cameraman who caught the shot from his car simply said: “There he goes, I’m out of here.”
One reply read: “As if the hurricane wasn’t enough.”
The storm had last night claimed at least 37 lives across America and the Caribbean, leaving three million people homeless.
Miami felt the initial impact of the devastating weather before it moved up the state’s western coast.
So far, five people have already been confirmed dead in Florida.
Six million homes – 62% of the entire state – are without power and three million people have been left homeless.
And on the islands of the Florida Keys, officials have warned of a “humanitarian crisis”, with the fate of the 10,000 people who did not evacuate still unknown.
The only good news for those affected was that another storm system, called Jose, has been weakening over the western Atlantic.
Irma had hit Florida as a category four hurricane before losing power and being downgraded to an 85mph tropical storm.
But weather experts said it remained life-threatening as it started to head north towards Georgia.
Florida has escaped more lightly than was initially feared, unlike the Caribbean islands that were blasted earlier.
New stories continued to emerge from thousands of Brits stranded on them.
On Virgin Gorda, one British hotel manager has been missing since the storm struck on Wednesday.
Amanda Whitlock, 49, said she last heard from her sister Caroline Whitlock-Henry, 50, and her husband Marcus Henry, 40, when they were huddled in a stairwell waiting for the storm to pass.
Since then, Amanda said: “There’s just been no news.”
Many other British holidaymakers have accused Thomas Cook and fellow holiday firm Thomson of “abandoning” them.
One unnamed Brit said: “The Canadians went, the Argentinians went, and we’re all sitting in our bloody hotels.”
The Government was also accused of doing less than those of other nations but Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson yesterday said: “This is a very big consular crisis and I am confident we are doing everything we possibly can to help British nationals.”