MASSIVE HURRICANE LINES UP KEYS, TAMPA
Howling winds in excess of 100 mph will be whipping the Florida Keys this morning before Hurricane Irma’s massive eye wall makes landfall in the Sunshine State, where it’s expected to batter cities along the Gulf Coast with record-setting gusts, powerful tornadoes and up to 15 feet of storm surge.
The massive storm, which weather experts say will amble up the spine of Florida and dump more than 25 inches of rain, is expected to reach Georgia tomorrow. Irma’s sustained winds of 125 mph and promises of torrential rainfall, tornadoes and widespread flooding prompted hundreds of thousands of Floridians to flee their homes, while many others huddled together in disaster shelters.
“This is a life-threatening situation,” the National Weather Service’s Hurricane Center warned, noting that although Irma weakened to a Category 3 storm as it passed over Cuba, it is expected to intensify as it spins toward Florida.
The leading edges of the storm whipped palm trees and kicked up the surf as it barreled toward the Sunshine State on a projected track that had St. Petersburg — which has not taken a direct hit from a major hurricane in nearly a century — in its cross hairs.
The westward swing away from Miami overnight caught many Gulf Coast residents off guard and triggered an abrupt shift in storm preparations. A major round of evacuations was ordered in the Tampa Bay area yesterday, and shelters there soon began filling up.
Despite the shift in forecast models, state officials stressed that the Miami metropolitan area was not out of danger. Because the storm is 350 to 400 miles wide, Miami residents could still face life-threatening hurricane winds and dangerous storm surge of 4 to 6 feet, forecasters warned.
The window was closing quickly last night for anyone wanting to escape before the storm arrives this morning. And as it barreled toward Florida, Irma — at one time the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the open Atlantic — had already claimed more than 20 lives in the Caribbean.
“This is your last chance to make a good decision,” Gov. Rick Scott warned residents in Florida’s evacuation zones, which encompassed a staggering 6.4 million people, or more than 1 in 4 people in the state. “You will not survive all this storm surge.”
In preparation for the storm, Scott activated all 7,000 members of the Florida National Guard, and 30,000 guardsmen from elsewhere were on standby. About 70,000 people crowded into 385 shelters statewide.
At peak tides, Irma’s storm surge will reach 15 feet above ground
in places, bringing “large and destructive waves”
“This is going to sneak up on people,” said Jamie Rhome, head of the hurricane center’s storm surge unit.
The new course threatens everything from Tampa Bay’s bustling twin cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg to Naples’ mansion- and yacht-lined canals, Sun City Center’s retirement homes, and Sanibel Island’s shell-filled beaches.
Given Irma’s mammoth size and strength and its projected course, it could prove one of the most devastating hurricanes ever to hit Florida and inflict damage on a scale not seen here in 25 years. Hurricane Andrew razed Miami’s suburbs in 1992 with winds topping 165 mph, damaging or blowing apart over 125,000 homes. The damage in Florida totaled $26 billion, and at least 40 people died.