Florida prepares for Hurricane Irma, threatening 185mph winds
● French officials say at least two killed in St Martin and St Barts
Florida residents picked store shelves clean while long lines formed at petrol pumps yesterday as Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 monster with potentiallycatastrophicwinds of 185 mph, steamed toward the Sunshine State and a possible direct hit on the Miami metropolitan area of nearly six million people.
The most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic destroyed homes and flooded streets as it roared through a chain of small islands in the northern Caribbean.
French overseas territories minister Annick Girardin confirmed last night that at least two people had been killed and another two seriously injured in St Martin and St Barts. Meteorologists said Irma could hit the Miami area by early Sunday, then rake the entire length of the state and push into the Carolinas.
But they warned that the forecast this far out contains a large degree of uncertainty. As a result, Florida residents and tourists received different messages from state and local authorities about when to evacuate and where to go. Republican Governor Rick Scott waived tolls on all Florida highways and told people if they were thinking about leaving to “get out now”. But in the same breath, he acknowledged that “it’s hard to tell people where to go until we know exactly where it will go”.
Amid the dire forecasts and the example set by Hurricane Harvey less than two weeks ago in devastated Houston, some people who usually ride out storms in Florida seemed unwilling to risk it this time.
“Should we leave? A lot of people that I wouldn’t expect to leave are leaving,” said Martie Mcclain, 66, who lives in the south Florida town of Plantation. Still, she was undecided, and worried about getting stuck in traffic and running out of petrol.
As people rushed to buy up water and other supplies, board up their homes with plywood and fuel their cars, Mr Scott declared a state of emergency and said he had asked the governors of Alabama and Georgia to waive trucking regulations so petrol tankers can get fuel into Florida quickly to ease shortages.
It has been almost 25 years since Florida took a hit from a Category 5 storm. Hurricane Andrew struck just south of Miami in 1992 with winds topping 165 mph (265 kph), causing catastrophic damage.
“We’ll see what happens,” President Donald Trump said in Washington. “It looks like it could be something that could be not good, believe me, not good.”
Mr Trump’s exclusive Mara-lago resort in Palm Beach sits in the path of the storm. Hurricane Andrew was, at the time, the most expensive natural disaster in US history, causing more than $26 billion (£20bn) in damage.