The remnants of Hurricane Irma swept north through Florida on Monday, leaving behind a trail of debris, flooding and power outages after the storm roared up the state’s Gulf Coast and brought its drenching rainfall and battering winds into Georgia.
In the worst tidal surge since Hurricane Hugo, Irma’s wide, whirling bands thrashed coastal South Carolina on Monday with stinging rains and punishing floods that put vast swaths of the Lowcountry under water.
Evacuees from Hurricane Irma were early on Wednesday returning to the Florida Keys, where sunrise will give them a first glimpse of devastation that has left countless homes and businesses in ruins.
Only a fraction of mobile homes in Florida were strapped down with the kind of hardened braces meant to withstand fierce storms before Hurricane Irma hit the state, experts said, leaving more than a half-million homes vulnerable to serious damage.
The full breadth of Hurricane Irma’s catastrophic attack on the Florida Keys is just now starting to emerge. Two days after Irma made landfall there, authorities and residents were finally able to reach some of the islands Tuesday.
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.
Irma will regain strength as it moves away from Cuba, with winds predicted of more than 110mph by the time it reaches the Florida Keys early Sunday. The latest projections from the National Hurricane Center show the storm moving at about 9mph, with winds of 125mph, still over Cuba’s northern shore.
At 80 miles wide, with 155 mile per hour winds, Hurricane Irma is terrifying in its perfection, with warm, deep water and minimal wind shear helping it along.
Hurricane Irma was expected to strengthen Saturday after barreling into Cuba and shifting its path toward Florida. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Irma was located about 225 miles south of Miami with maximum sustained winds decreasing to 130 mph.
Hurricane Irma pounded Cuba’s northern coast on Saturday as it headed for Florida, where millions of residents were told to evacuate after the storm killed 22 people in the Caribbean and left devastation in its wake.
While how much damage Hurricane Irma will cause once it hits land is still very much in doubt, one scenario has emerged that puts the cost at record levels.
Roiling waters in the streets have been replaced by stifling piles of garbage on the curbs. Hurricane Harvey’s record-setting rains created heaps of ruined possessions that now line entire neighborhoods, nearly up to the rooftops of the homes that were swamped.
As Category 4 Hurricane Irma commands most of the media attention this week, two other hurricanes -- Jose and Katia -- have been gathering strength as they threaten landfall.
