Irma strengthens to Category 5
Storm packing 185 mph winds could hit Florida by weekend
NAPLES, FLA. “Potentially catastrophic” Hurricane Irma strengthened Tuesday to a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 185 mph, making it the strongest hurricane in the Atlantic since 2005.
Irma tied for the secondstrongest Atlantic hurricane on record, could slam into Florida’s coast over the weekend. A mandatory evacuation for visitors to the Florida Keys was set to begin at sunrise Wednesday, with residents required to evacuate later in the day.
“If ever there was a storm to take seriously in the Keys, this is it,” Monroe County Emergency Management Director Martin Senterfitt said. The county’s three hospitals were planning to evacuate patients, he added.
On Tuesday, President Trump signed an emergency declaration for Puerto Rico making federal aid available to the territory because of Irma.
The hurricane will blast the northern Caribbean with lifethreatening flooding, damaging winds and rough surf over the next few days, Accuweather said. A similar scenario could then play out somewhere along the Gulf or East coasts of the U.S. this weekend or next week, depending on where Irma tracks.
Gov. Rick Scott warned Floridians to “prepare for the worst.” He declared a statewide state of emergency and activated 100 National Guard members to help with storm preparations. The state’s full complement of 7,000 Guard members will report for duty Friday.
Scott urged residents to stock up on water and food and to learn emergency shelters’ locations.
“We don’t know what is in store, but we all have to be prepared,” Scott said. “When there’s an evacuation, listen. In the middle of a hurricane, no one can rescue you.”
At 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, the center of Hurricane Irma was located 85 miles east of Antigua, and it was moving west at 15 mph. Only Hurricane Allen in 1980, with winds of 190 mph, was stronger. Wilma in 2005, Gilbert in 1988, an unnamed 1935 hurricane and now Irma have hit 185 mph.
A Category 5 hurricane can destroy a high percentage of framed homes, which suffer total roof failure and wall collapse, the hurricane center said. Fallen trees and power poles can isolate resi-
“When there’s an evacuation, listen. In the middle of a hurricane, no one can rescue you.”
Florida Gov. Rick Scott
dential areas, and power outages can last for months.
Most of the area could be uninhabitable for weeks or months, the center said.
If Irma slams into the U.S. as a Category 5 hurricane, it wouldn’t be the first. Hurricane Andrew roared into South Florida 25 years ago, flattening neighborhoods, tossing cars, boats and mobile homes like small toys and leaving millions without power. The storm destroying more than
25,000 homes and damaging
100,000 others. Hurricane warnings were in effect Tuesday for several Caribbean islands, including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic, where “preparations should be rushed to completion,” according to the hurricane center.