Irma lashes Florida
Naples bears brunt of 142 mph winds while Tampa Bay braces for storm surge and power fails for 2.3 million
After wreaking devastation through the Caribbean and forcing one of the largest evacuations in U.S. history, Hurricane Irma ripped away from the Florida Keys on Sunday afternoon, made a second landfall in southwest Florida, and crawled up the west coast, where residents were bracing after days of frantic preparation.
Tropical-storm-force winds from the storm, which was downgraded on to a Category 2 hurricane, began battering the Tampa Bay area early Sunday evening, according to Michael Brennan, acting chief of the National Hurricane Center’s Hurricane Specialist Unit. Wind gusts of nearly 60 mph were hitting St. Petersburg, he said.
“The biggest thing you can do now is pray,” Gov. Rick Scott said earlier Sunday afternoon.
The storm thrashed the Florida Keys early Sunday. A television news broadcast showed entire homes, and a person standing on a balcony, nearly submerged.
Already crippling more
than 2.3 million customers across the state, power failures spread. There was no television to keep many residents updated, with only the remaining battery on their cellphones keeping them in touch with the
world.
Irma’s full might was expected to be felt in major cities, including St. Petersburg and Tampa, on Sunday night, according to Andrew McKaughan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face,” Mayor Bob Buckhorn of Tampa said at a Sunday morning news conference, paraphrasing Mike Tyson. “Well, we’re about to get punched in the face.”
Irma has dropped more than a foot of rain in several parts of South Florida this weekend. As of 4 p.m. Sunday, Melbourne, southeast of Orlando on Florida’s East Coast, had received the most rain in the state, 14.5 inches, according to the National Weather Service. The second-most rainfall was in the Everglades National Park, which had received about 13.4 inches.
6.5 million evacuated
Marco Island and Naples, where Hurricane Irma made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast on Sunday, have registered the strongest winds in the state during the storm. Winds topped out at 142 mph in Naples, while they reached 130 mph in Marco Island, according to the National Weather Service.
Florida officials have ordered more than 6.5 million residents to leave their homes. Several counties, including Miami-Dade, Collier and Lee, enacted curfews until Sunday morning. Collier County also issued a boil water warning until officials could assess damages to the water system.
After a day of anticipation, the pummeling of Florida’s west coast began Sunday evening.
In Fort Myers, the wind whipped the tops of palm trees and the rain came in waves, quickly inundating low-lying areas.
When the rain and wind combined, gusts slammed water against windows. At one Fort Myers hotel, the water was being driven with such force that it blew into rooms around window frames and soaked carpets.
The police in San Marco, where Irma made its second landfall, posted on Twitter that residents should evacuate to a second floor or higher. The department also posted photos showing downed trees and power lines, and advised people to stay away from windows.
The Florida Keys, a 113mile stretch of islands connected by 42 bridges, have been ordered closed for reentry until further notice, officials said.
Authorities had yet to begin inspections of the dozens of bridges that connect the many islands that make up the Keys, said Cammy Clark, a county spokeswoman.
The Florida tourism bureau posted a notice on its website urging tourists to postpone their trips.
Palm trees shook in South Miami as wind picked up drastically, with gusts of 80 to 90 mph reported by the National Hurricane Center. In the Brickell neighborhood, between Biscayne Bay and the Miami River, seawater hurtled down major streets and past high rises.
Winds whipped huge cranes that dot the Miami skyline around in precarious circles on Sunday. In downtown Miami, images showed the partial collapse of a crane atop a building under construction. A tweet from the city of Miami told residents, “AVOID THE AREA!!”
Across the metro Miami area, most buildings and houses were shrouded in darkness, streetlights were out, and police officers and National Guard troops were hunkered down like everyone else.
North of Miami, in Fort Lauderdale, the National Weather Service reported a fast-moving tornado at the international airport .
‘No safe place to be’
As the hurricane started to lash the Keys, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida expressed concern about those who stayed behind.
In an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Rubio said emergency officials had warned residents about the threat posed by Irma but added: “Now, that doesn’t mean people, some people, stubbornly didn’t stay behind. Gosh, we are worried about them.”
But those living in the southwest, including the Tampa Bay region, might not have had as much time to evacuate, he said, because “the warnings really only started to be amplified Friday night for them.”
“There’s probably no safe place to be,” he said.
President Donald Trump was monitoring developments from Camp David, where he and Vice President Mike Pence received a briefing Sunday morning.
“The U.S. Coast Guard, FEMA and all Federal and State brave people are ready,” Trump wrote on Twitter late Saturday. “Here comes Irma. God bless everyone!”