Irma leaves 2m powerless

About 1.9 million homes and businesses in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas remained without power from Hurricane Irma last Friday, five days after the deadly storm ripped through the US Southeast. Irma, which ranked as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record before striking the US mainland as a Category 4 hurricane on September 10, claimed at least 82 deaths. Several hard-hit Caribbean islands, including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, suffered more than half the fatalities, reports Reuters.

About 1.8 million customers were without electricity in Florida, including 281,400 homes and businesses served by municipal power companies and electric cooperatives.

Among the state’s public utilities, Florida Power & Light, owned by NextEra Energy Inc and the state’s biggest electric company, reported about 1.1 million customers had no power. Duke Energy Corp said 375,400 customers were in the dark and Tampa Electric, a unit of Emera Inc, said about 36,600 were without electricity.

Another 116,900 customers in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina also remained in the dark on Friday.

At least 32 deaths have been reported in Florida and seven more combined in Georgia and South Carolina. The death toll includes eight elderly people who died after being exposed to sweltering heat inside a nursing home in Miami.

— AP Palm trees lie strewn across the road as Hurricane Irma passed by Miami Beach, Florida, last week leaving a trail of death and destruction. Seven million people in the Southeast were warned to evacuate, including 6.4 million in Florida alone.