Officials Warn Irma Will Be "Wider Than The State’ of Florida

Florida residents were racing to complete final preparations on Friday as Hurricane Irma, slightly weakened from its peak but still packing enormous destructive power, cast a dark shadow over the southern half of the Sunshine State. In a filmed message to the nation, Donald Trump called Irma “a storm of absolutely historic destructive potential”. After leaving a trail of wreckage and claiming at least 21 lives during its four-day rampage across the Caribbean, Irma was forecast to take a significant turn north and strike one of the most populous areas of the US in the early hours of Sunday.