‘Powerful and deadly’ Irma roars toward U.S.

KEY WEST, Fla. - Hurricane Irma and its treacherous Category 5 winds have moved within striking distance of south Florida, where residents Thursday were boarding up homes, grabbing dwindling supplies of bottled water, and battling fuel shortages as evacuees sought to get out of harm’s way.

Irma, the most powerful Atlantic storm ever recorded, left a trail of death and destruction across the Caribbean as it howled past Puerto Rico and Hispaniola on a steady

course toward the U.S. mainland.

The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch for south Florida as a final step before likely issuing a full hurricane warning for the weekend.

Forecasters warned that Irma could slam head-on into the Miami metropolitan area of 6 million and roar through the state’s Atlantic Coast into Georgia and South Carolina.

Georgia and South Carolina braced for the worst. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, expanding a state of emergency to 30 counties, ordered mandatory evacuations along the Atlantic Coast, including Savannah, with a population of l46,000. The Peach State hasn’t been hit by a Category 3 or greater hurricane since 1898.

Officials issued mandatory evacuation orders for tens of thousands of people in the Florida Keys and in exposed or low-lying parts of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area.

“Leave the Keys and get out,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Thursday afternoon. “We can’t save you once the storm hits.”

Approaching the mainland, Irma’s sustained winds eased only slightly — from 185 mph to 175 mph — but remained a full-force, Category 5 storm as it chewed through a string of Caribbean islands.

As Florida braced for the storm’s arrival, Scott called Irma “powerful and deadly” and said the state’s biggest problem was fuel availability for people who have still not left.

State and federal officials waived regulations to speed up delivery of fuel from Florida ports and neighboring states, he said. “We know fuel is very important,” he said. “We are devoting every state resource to addressing this.”

He said police were escorting fuel delivery trucks in some areas to help speed them through traffic snarls. At the same time, he urged people to only take what they need, especially if they were sheltering in place.

Scott also said the state would provide transportation for those who find they do not have enough fuel to get out. “This is not just a storm you can sit and wait through,” he said.

Scott warned that Irma would be stronger and larger than Hurricane Andrew, the Category 5 storm that in 1992 killed 65 people in Florida, destroyed more than 63,500 homes and caused $26.5 billion in damage.

Ahead of the storm, residents on the mainland were either hunkering down or fleeing the most threatened areas.

In Fort Myers, Florida, police reported traffic congestion caused by people buying plywood and other storm supplies.