The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hurricane Irma on way to the U.S.
Some areas of Florida plan evacuations ahead of record-setting storm.
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO — Wielding the most powerful winds ever recorded for a storm in the Atlantic Ocean, Hurricane Irma bore down Tuesday on the Leeward Islands of the northeast Caribbean on a forecast path that could take it toward Florida over the weekend.
If Irma stays on the forecast
track, it will reach the Florida Straits, where the water there is warm enough that the already “intense” storm could become much worse with wind speeds potentially reaching 225 mph, warned Kerry Emanuel, an MIT meteorology professor.
“People who are living there (the Florida Keys) or have property there are very scared, and they should be,” Emanuel said.
Officials began urging people in Florida to leave areas that could take a direct hit from Irma. Miami Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez said Tuesday that officials could ask some of the
county’s 2.7 million residents to begin evacuating as early as today, calling Irma’s potential impact an “all hands on deck” situation for local officials.
Officials in Monroe County — home of the Florida Keys, a popular tourist destination — said Tuesday they had issued a mandatory evacuation for tourists beginning today at 7 a.m.
A mandatory evacuation for residents was also issued for today at 7 p.m.
Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brad Nitz said Georgia may feel the storm’s impact next week, but the extent will be determined by the path of the storm and its strength as it moves north.
Hotels along I-75 were seeing a surge in reservations as Florida residents fled north. One Valdosta hotel is full for the next week, and a manager of a Tifton hotel said she couldn’t talk long because the phones had been ringing constantly with people needing rooms.
“They don’t know what’s going to happen, and no one wants to take the chance,” said Ken Patel, who runs the Wingate by Wyndham in Warner Robins.
The storm, now a top-ofthe-scale Category 5, posed an immediate threat to the small islands of the northern Leewards, including Antigua and Barbuda, as well as the British and U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
“The Leeward Islands are going to get destroyed,” warned Colorado State University meteorology professor Phil Klotzbach, a noted hurricane expert. “I just pray that this thing wobbles and misses them. This is a serious storm.”
Irma had maximum sustained winds of 185 mph as it approached the Caribbean from the east, according to the hurricane center.
Four other recorded storms have had winds that strong in the overall Atlantic region, but they were in the Caribbean Sea or the Gulf of Mexico, where warmer waters fuel larger cyclones. Hurri- cane Allen hit 190 mph in 1980, while 2005’s Wilma, 1988’s Gilbert and the 1935 Labor Day Storm that struck the Florida Keys all had 185 mph winds.
Irma is so strong because of unusually warm waters in the Atlantic.
Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 60 miles from the center and tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 175 miles.
People in Antigua and Barbuda, a nation made up of two islands, should seek protection from Irma’s “onslaught,” officials warned in a statement, closing with: “May God protect us all.”
Several other small islands were directly in the path of the storm, including Anguilla, a low-lying British territory of about 15,000 people.
Authorities there converted three churches and a school into shelters as they prepared for a big storm surge and the full brunt of the winds.
“People normally go to friends and family during a storm. We’ll see,” said Melissa Meade, director of the Disaster Management Department.
The storm’s eye was expected to pass about 50 miles from Puerto Rico late today.
“Puerto Rico has not seen a hurricane of this magnitude in almost 100 years,” said Carlos Anselmi, a National Weather Service meteorologist in San Juan.
For the U.S. “this looks like at this point that it’s very hard to miss,” said University of Miami senior hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. “You’d be hard-pressed to find any model that doesn’t have some impact on Florida.”
For the Caribbean “even if the eyewall doesn’t pass directly over them, which unfortunately it’s going to do in the northern Leewards,” it will be big enough and close enough to cause a nasty storm surge, heavy rain and mudslides, McNoldy said.
Authorities warned that the storm could dump up to 12 inches of rain, cause landslides and flash floods and generate waves of up to 23 feet.
Puerto Ricans braced for blackouts after the director of the island’s power company said storm damage could leave some areas without electricity for about a week and other areas for four to six months.
The utility’s infrastructure has deteriorated greatly during a decade-long recession.
Both Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands expected 4 inches to 10 inches of rain and winds of 40-50 mph with gusts up to 75 mph.
“This is not an opportunity to go outside and try to have fun with a hurricane,” U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Kenneth Mapp warned. “It’s not time to get on a surfboard.”