Tampa, Florida - Hurricane Irma
pounded heavily populated areas of central Florida on Monday as
it carved through the state with high winds, storm surges and
torrential rains that left millions without power, ripped roofs
off homes and flooded city streets.
Irma, once ranked as one of the most powerful hurricanes
recorded in the Atlantic, came ashore in Florida on Sunday and
battered towns as it worked its way up the state.
The storm gradually lost strength, weakening to a Category 1
hurricane overnight, the National Hurricane Center said. By 5am ET (0900 GMT), Irma was churning northwest in the centre of
the state and was about 100 km north of Tampa, with
maximum sustained winds of 120km/h.
Much of the state's east and west coasts remained vulnerable
to storm surges, when hurricanes push ocean water dangerously
over normal levels. That risk extended to the coast of Georgia
and parts of South Carolina, the hurricane center said.
Officials planned to wait until first light on Monday to
begin rescue efforts and assess damage, the Miami Herald cited
Florida Director of Emergency Management Bryan Koon as saying.
He did not give any numbers on possible fatalities.
Damage appeared to be severe in the Florida Keys, where Irma
first came ashore as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds
of up to 215km/h in the early hours of Sunday, the
paper quoted Monroe County Emergency Director Martin Senterfitt
as saying.
A large military airborne relief operation was being
prepared to take help to the chain of islands, which are linked
by a dramatic series of bridges and causeways from Key Largo
almost 160km southwest to the city of Key West,
Senterfitt told a teleconference.
Early on Monday, Irma brought gusts of up to 160km/h and torrential rain to areas around Orlando, one of the
most popular areas for tourism in Florida because of its cluster
of theme parks, the National Weather Service said.
In Daytona Beach, a city on the east coast about 90km northeast of Orlando, city streets were flooded and
emergency authorities carried out several water rescues, the
Daytona Beach Police Department said on Twitter.
Over the weekend, Irma claimed its first US fatality - a
man found dead in a pickup truck that had crashed into a tree in
high winds in the town of Marathon, in the Florida Keys, local
officials said.
The storm killed at least 28 people as it raged westward
through the Caribbean en route to Florida. Irma was ranked a
Category 5, the rare top end of the scale of hurricane
intensity, for days, and carried maximum sustained winds of up
to 295km/h when it crashed into the island of Barbuda
on Wednesday.
Ahead of Irma's arrival, some 6.5 million people in southern
Florida, about a third of the state's population, were ordered
to evacuate their homes.
Jonathan Brubaker, 51, waited out the storm bunkered in a
recently constructed house in Bradenton, on the state's west
coast, with hurricane shutters drawn, flashlights and candles
ready. As a radar app on his phone showed Irma passing by, he
had seen little more than gusty winds. He still had power.
"I feel like we kind of dodged bullet on this one," he said,
adding that he would wait until Monday morning before trying to
sleep. "And then, I think we’re OK, knock on wood."
A boat is washed on shore at the Watson Island marina as Hurricane Irma passed through the area in Miami, Florida. Picture: Joe Raedle/AFP
MILLIONS WITHOUT POWER
High winds snapped power lines and left about 5.8 million
Florida homes and businesses without power, state data showed.
Many of the evacuation orders extended until at least Monday
due in part to flooding, massive power outages and downed
electric lines, leaving residents unable to return to their
homes to survey any damage.
TV news video of damage in Naples, a city on the Gulf coast
about 200km northwest of Miami, showed buildings
ripped apart by winds and streets flooded by rain and storm
surges.
Miami International Airport, one of the busiest in the
country, halted passenger flights through at least Monday.
Irma was forecast to weaken to a tropical storm as it moved
near Florida's northwestern coast on Monday morning, the
National Hurricane Center said. It would cross the eastern
Florida Panhandle and move into southern Georgia later in the
day, dumping as much as 41cm of rain, it said.
Blown sand from Pompano Beach coats bushes and mail boxes as Hurricane Irma hits the southern part of Florida. Picture: Chip Somodevilla/AFP
SKYSCRAPERS SWAY IN LASHING WINDS
Five tornados were reported in Florida on Sunday, causing
damage to several structures but there were no indications of
anyone being seriously injured, the National Weather Service
said.
Along with hurricane warnings and watches in Florida, the
weather service placed tropical storm warnings for large parts
of Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.
The densely populated Miami area was spared the brunt of
Irma, although the hurricane's wide reach meant the state's
biggest city was still battered.
Miami apartment towers swayed in the high winds on Sunday,
three construction cranes were toppled, and streets flooded
between office towers.
Police in Miami-Dade County said they had made 29 arrests
for looting and burglary.
The storm and evacuation orders caused major disruption to
transportation in the state, which is a major tourist
destination and which accounts for about 5 percent of US gross
domestic product.
Irma, which hit just days after the Houston area was deluged
by unprecedented flooding in Texas from Hurricane Harvey, was
expected to cause billions of dollars in damage to the
third-most-populous U.S. state.
However, European shares rose on Monday in early deals, led
higher by insurers as the weakening of Irma raised expectations
that costs for the industry might be lower than initially
feared.