The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ANXIETY OVER IRMA 4 killed in Caribbean; Fla. in sights.
FORT MYERS, FLA. — Floridians hit the highways, scrambled for scarce supplies and hammered plywood over windows as a monster hurricane made landfall in the Caribbean, where it was blamed for at least four deaths Wednesday.
As Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record, hammered Puerto Rico, Florida rushed to prepare for a possible direct hit on the Miami area by the Category 5 storm with potentially catastrophic 185 mph sustained winds.
Amid an overnight assault of battering waves and 185-mph
winds, two deaths were reported in French island territories, a third in Anguilla, a British territory, and a fourth in Barbuda, part of a tiny independent nation.
In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott implored constituents to obey calls to flee the storm’s path when the time came.
“I cannot stress this enough — do not ignore evacuation orders,” Scott said at a news briefing as the storm began lashing Puerto Rico with rain. “If you’re told to evacuate, don’t wait — get out quickly.”
In warning of the dangers, the governor invoked Hurricane Andrew, which devastated Florida a quarter-century ago, causing massive destruction and killing nearly 50 people.
“I want everybody to understand the importance of this — this is bigger than Andrew,” Scott told ABC News.
President Donald Trump declared states of emergency in Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Florida began activating its National Guard, with 7,000 members told to report for duty Friday.
Experts worried that Irma could rake the entire Florida east coast from Miami to Jacksonville and then head into Savannah, Ga., and the Carolinas, striking highly populated and developed areas.
“This could easily be the most costly storm in U.S. history, which is saying a lot considering what just happened two weeks ago,” said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami.
Because of the uncertainty in any forecast this far out, authorities in Miami held off for the time being on ordering any widespread evacuations. The mayor of MiamiDade County activated the emergency operation center and urged residents to have three days’ worth of food and water.
The State Department authorized voluntary evacuation of U.S. diplomats and their families from the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba, where the storm is expected to arrive by Friday.
In Fort Myers, Stephanie Matteson was in line at a gas station, where she said she had been waiting for 25 minutes. “I swear, it’s like everyone is in a hurry to get this thing over with — like, ‘Just come on, Irma, and then leave us alone,’” said Matteson, 47.
She said she experienced Hurricane Wilma in 2005, “but Irma’s got more punch, from what they’re saying.”
There was a run on supplies from bananas to batteries. Anthony Bonner, a bread company distributor, predicted that the 28 racks of bread he was delivering to a picked-over Wal-Mart in Coral Cove, outside Fort Myers, would go fast. “It’s kind of like I’m the candy man wherever I show up,” he said. “Bread and water are always the first to go.”
A state of emergency was declared earlier for all 67 Florida counties; on Wednesday, South Carolina followed suit, with Gov. Henry McMaster urging the public to not leave storm preparations for the last moment. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal issued a state of emergency for his state’s coastal counties.
As he did while Hurricane Harvey pounded Texas late last month, Trump tweeted about the strength of the storm, which could threaten his own Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla.
“Hurricane looks like the largest ever recorded in the Atlantic!” he wrote Wednesday morning on Twitter.
The president also said his emergency management team was ready in Florida, adding: “No rest for the weary!”
Later, heading into a meet-
ing with congressional leaders, he described the epic storm as “something that could be not good — believe me, not good.”
The National Hurricane Center said the storm was one of the five most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in the last 80 years and the strongestAtlanticstorm on record outside the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
Satellite imagery of the enormous storm inspired fear and awe. The hurricane center in Miami described a vast swirling mass, with winds extending 50 miles from the storm’s center.
The hurricane’s force was such that it was detected by earthquake-measuring equipment on islands it passed, said Stephen Hicks, a seismologist at Britain’s University of Southampton.
Before dawn Wednesday, the tiny Caribbean nation of Barbuda and Antigua was pummeled by wind and rain as the top-scale Category 5 storm passed almost directly above the islands, tearing off roofs, uprooting trees and triggering floods. Many people sought safety in government shelters as the winds turned debris into missiles.
At first, Prime Minister Gaston Browne tweeted thanks that his nation had been spared the worst. But then came grim word of almost all houses on Barbuda destroyed, and what Browne said was the death of a 2-year-old child as a fam- ily tried to escape a damaged home during the storm.
Irma also roared through the French island territories of St. Martin and St. Barthelemy, battering them with wind and water that smashed buildings and toppled trees. It was there that two deaths were reported.
In Puerto Rico, lashed by the storm’s leading edge, people hunkered down as the hurricane menaced the U.S. territory. Gov. Ricardo Rossello said the storm’s danger was “like nothing we’ve ever seen.”