Hurricane Irma pummels Florida
Monster Hurricane Irma has roared into Florida with 209 km/h winds for what appears be a sustained assault on nearly the entire Sunshine State, submerging streets, knocking out power to millions and snapping massive construction cranes over the Miami skyline.
A man takes a selfie as the full effects of Hurricane Irma strike in Miami, Florida. Photo: EPA/Erik S. Lesser
The 640-kilometre-wide storm blew ashore in the mostly cleared-out Florida Keys and then began a slow march up the state’s west coast.
Forecasters said it could hit the heavily populated Tampa-St Petersburg area early on Monday local time.
“Pray, pray for everybody in Florida,” Governor Rick Scott said on Fox News Sunday as some 116,000 people statewide waited it out in shelters.
Irma struck as a Category 4 but by late afternoon had weakened to a Category 2 with 177 kph winds that whipped Florida’s palm trees with drenching squalls. A storm surge of over three metres was recorded in the Keys, and forecasters warned some places on the mainland could get up to over four metres of water.
There were no immediate confirmed reports of any deaths in Florida, on top of the at least 24 people killed during Irma’s destructive trek across the Caribbean.
Many streets were flooded in downtown Miami and other cities. Appliances and furniture were seen floating away in the low-lying Keys, though the full extent of Irma’s fury there was not clear.
An apparent tornado spun off by Irma destroyed six mobile homes in Palm Bay, hundreds of kilometres away along the state’s Atlantic coast. Flooding was reported along Interstate 4, which cuts across Florida’s midsection.
In downtown Miami, two of the two dozen construction cranes looming over the skyline collapsed in the wind. No injuries were reported. City officials said it would have taken about two weeks to move the massive equipment.
Hurricane Irma churns up rough waters where the Miami River meets Biscayne Bay. Photo: EPA/Erik S. Lesser
Curfews were imposed in Miami, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and much of the rest of South Florida, and some arrests of violators were reported. Miami Beach barred outsiders from the island.
Fort Lauderdale police arrested nine people they said were caught on TV cameras looting sneakers and other items from a sporting goods store and a pawn shop during the hurricane.
More than 2 million homes and businesses across the state lost power.
While the projected track showed Irma raking the state’s Gulf Coast, forecasters warned that the entire state – including the Miami metropolitan area of 6 million people – was in danger because of the sheer size of the storm.
Nearly 7 million people in the Southeast were warned to evacuate, including 6.4 million in Florida alone.
About 30,000 people heeded orders to leave the Keys as the storm closed in, but an untold number refused, in part because to many storm-hardened residents, staying behind in the face of danger is a point of pride.
– AP
