Hurricane Irma Churns Toward Florida
The Atlantic’s strongest storm has
left destruction across the Caribbean. Witnesses warn others to brace
themselves as Irma moves toward Florida.
By CAMILLA SCHICK, ROBIN LINDSAY and CHRIS CIRILLO
on Publish Date September 6, 2017.
Photo by Martin Bureau/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images.
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Hurricane
Irma churned toward Florida on Saturday, leaving a trail of death and
destruction across the Caribbean and prompting one of the largest
emergency evacuations in American history.
The
storm is driving northwest as it rips across northern Cuba, and will
eventually continue toward the United States. It is expected to grip
hold of land again by Sunday morning in Florida, where it will most
likely move along or near the southwest coast, according to the National
Hurricane Center.
Storm
surges will threaten Florida’s west coast on Sunday, where more than 3
million people live, and entire neighborhoods stretching northward from
Naples to Tampa Bay could be submerged.
Irma
made landfall in Cuba Friday evening as a Category 5 hurricane, lashing
the island’s northern coast with a direct hit. It became the first
Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in Cuba since 1924.
The
hurricane was downgraded to Category 3 Saturday morning, with winds of
125 miles per hour, and remained Category 3 around 2 p.m., but was
expected to strengthen again over Florida. About 6.3 million people in
the state have been ordered to leave their homes.
“The storm is here,” Gov. Rick Scott said Saturday morning, noting that the storm surge could reach 15 feet in some places.
“Fifteen
feet is devastating and will cover your house,” he said. “Do not think
the storm is over when the wind slows down. The storm surge will rush in
and it could kill you.”
Here’s the latest:
• At least 25 people were confirmed dead by Saturday morning in areas affected by the storm.
•
Irma’s core is expected to reach the Florida Keys by Sunday morning,
with the eye on track to tear between the cities of Key West and
Marathon. “THIS IS AS REAL AS IT GETS,” the National Weather Service said.
“NOWHERE IN THE FLORIDA KEYS WILL BE SAFE.” The National Hurricane
Center warned of “life-threatening surge and wind.” Check out our maps tracking the storm.
•
In addition to an evacuation order in Miami, one of the country’s
largest evacuations, 540,000 people were told to leave the Georgia
coast. Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina have declared states
of emergency.
Continue reading the main story
• At 1 p.m., the National Hurricane Center said a weather station in Ciegode Avila, Cuba, reported a wind gust to 159 m.p.h.
•
Hurricane Jose, upgraded to a Category 4, was barreling toward the
Leeward Islands. On St. Martin, already devastated by Irma, Dutch
Marines dropped fliers from a helicopter warning inhabitants to head to
shelters.
•
Hurricane Katia, which made landfall on Mexico’s eastern coast, was
downgraded to a tropical depression, with winds of 35 m.p.h. Two people died in a mudslide in the state of Veracruz after the storm hit, The Associated Press reported.
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SEVERITY
Category
5
4
3
2
1
Tropical storm
Governor to Floridians: Evacuate now
During
a news conference Saturday morning, Gov. Rick Scott urged Floridians to
heed evacuation orders and seek shelter immediately.
“Evacuate,” he said. “Not tonight, not in an hour. You need to go right now.”
He
reassured those who were still delaying that they would not have to
leave the state. More than 260 shelters were already operating across
every county, with 70 more scheduled to open throughout the day.
Evacuation
routes across the state were moving consistently, the governor said,
adding that he had dispatched additional state troopers to maintain the
flow of traffic.
“Just remember this,” he said, “Once the storm starts, law enforcement cannot save you.”
Volunteers
were needed at shelters that were serving people with special needs.
“We need more nurses,” the governor said, asking those who were willing
to work to email BPRCHDpreparedness@flhealth.gov. “All available nurses, if you’ll please respond.”
Rob
Gould, the public information officer for the Florida Power & Light
Company, said the company expected 3.4 million customers to be affected
by the storm. Parts of the electrical system will need to be entirely
rebuilt, Mr. Gould said, with the company expecting the brunt of the
damage in the western part of the state.
“Likely
on the east coast, we will see a restoration, but on the west coast, a
complete rebuild,” he said. “We anticipate this restoration effort will
be measured in weeks, not days.”
Continue reading the main story
Florida Keys face being cut off from mainland
In
the Florida Keys, where the hurricane is expected to make landfall on
Sunday morning between Marathon and Key West, emergency officials girded
for a direct hit and residents who did not evacuate began to take cover
as the winds kicked up sharply Saturday afternoon.
The
Keys, a thin chain of islands that sit below sea level, are especially
vulnerable to Hurricane Irma’s anticipated powerful tidal surges.
The
ocean is expected to rise and hurtle into buildings and houses near the
coast. Pine Island, north of Key West, was already seeing rising seas
at noon.
Some canals were spilling their bounds and emergency responders were evacuating to the Upper Keys.
“We’re
very concerned about the potential loss of life,” said Cammy Clark, a
county spokeswoman. “Storm surges could kill a lot of people because
there’s nowhere to go.”
But
the worst could come after the hurricane moves on. Keys residents could
find themselves isolated from the mainland if any one of their 42
bridges gets damaged.
Residents
and emergency officials would be cut off from food, gas and other
supplies because there would be no easy way of reaching them by road.
“Just
think about the Keys for a second,” Governor Scott warned residents at a
recent news conference. “If we lose one bridge, everything south of the
bridge, everybody’s going to be stranded. It’s going to take us a while
to get back in there to try to provide services.”
With
so many dire warnings, some residents left Saturday morning. But others
dug in, choosing not to evacuate. Emergency officials grew so concerned
about the holdouts they opened four refuges of last resort.
A dangerous storm surge
The winds of Hurricane Irma are fierce. But the surge from the storm could also cause tremendous damage to coastal cities.
“It
flows in very fast,” Governor Scott said of the waters expected to rush
into parts of the state. “It’s going to go faster, possibly, than you
are.”
Continue reading the main story
The National Hurricane Center provides a map of the potential storm surge from Irma, and the 5 a.m. Saturday forecast suggested a brutal surge near Naples topping nine feet.
More detailed projections can be found at the website adcirc.org, which is devoted to a highly respected suite of computer programs that model surge. Rick Luettich,
one of the principal developers of Adcirc and director of the
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine
Sciences, said that the current map of Florida under the models “looks a bit ugly,” which he acknowledged was an understatement.
“For
years, we have thought about areas of the country that are particularly
vulnerable to hurricanes, and particularly, storm surge,” Dr. Luettich
said. New York City, New Orleans, Houston, and Miami are always high on
such lists. “It’s almost as if we’ve been going down the list and
checking them off,” he said.
The
projections on the site, which are based on the forecasts from the
National Hurricane Center and updated with each new forecast, allow
users to look at any given report and see what would happen if the storm
track shifts 50 percent to the west or to the east. (To try this, go to the map, pull down the advisory/track tab and hover your cursor over any report.)
With
this storm, Dr. Luettich noted, those shifts can mean major differences
in destructive storm surge for the Atlantic or Gulf coasts of Florida
and farther up the Atlantic coast.
‘Run from the water, hide from the wind’
A hurricane watch took effect for the entire Georgia coast on Saturday, and a mandatory evacuation order covered most of the coast.
Officials
warned of the potential for high winds and storm surge even as Irma’s
forecasted path seemed likely to spare the region from the worst.
“Run
from the water, hide from the wind,” said Dennis Jones, the director of
emergency management in Chatham County, which contains Savannah. “Our
focus is to get you out of the threat.”
Hundreds
of people lined up outside of the convention center in Savannah,
waiting for school and coach buses to evacuate them out of the city.
Doretha
Harden, 53, stood with six of her neighbors from a housing complex for
disabled residents. Ms. Harden has a brain disorder and was worried, she
said, that the tension of the evacuation could give her a seizure.
Continue reading the main story
“It’s triggered by stress,” she said.
Lorenzo Green, 66, said he worried more about the evacuation than the storm itself.
“I’m supposed to be going to Augusta,” Mr. Green said. “The only thing that’s scary is going to a place I’ve never been.”
Cuba gets a direct hit
Irma
slammed into Cuba on Friday night as a Category 5 hurricane, causing
widespread destruction. Meteorologists were expecting the storm to tack
north earlier, and were not predicting a direct hit.
The eye of the storm passed directly through the archipelago of keys on the northern coast in the central part of the island.
Irma, downgraded to Category 3, continued to plow through Cuba on Saturday afternoon.
The
damage to its central provinces was substantial: Power lines were
brought down in Camaguey, houses were destroyed in Ciego de Avila and
fishing towns have been submerged in Villa Clara.
By
Saturday afternoon, the storm started to lash Havana. By 1 p.m. waves
were crashing over the capital’s iconic breakwater and esplanade, the
Malecón. Apart from the police, the only people out were a few
thrill-seeking tourists.
Havana
is set to avoid the brunt of the storm, but meteorologists warned that
flooding could penetrate over 500 meters into the city.
An ‘apocalyptic doomsday scene’ on the British Virgin Islands
With
communications limited on the British Virgin Islands, the full scope of
the damage from Hurricane Irma was still revealing itself. On Saturday,
at least five deaths were reported by the governor, Gus Jaspert. With
communication on the island all but severed, officials were still
working to assess the full scale of devastation.
Residents
of Tortola, the largest island, said buildings were leveled and roads
were washed away. People have limited food and water.
Mr. Jaspert said the toll on the islands was widespread and he urged citizens to prepare for incoming Hurricane Jose.
Continue reading the main story
The
British government said it sent 20 tons of aid to the affected areas,
including shelter kits and solar lanterns aboard a naval ship.
Catherine
Clayton, whose family owns a hotel on Tortola in Josiah’s Bay, said 25
people — including neighbors whose homes were decimated — were sheltered
in the two remaining inhabitable rooms at the once eight-room Tamarind
Hotel.
“It is like an apocalyptic doomsday scene here,” she said. “No trees, leaves or greenery.”
Other
parts of the island had similar damage. From her apartment on Skelton
Hill, which overlooks Road Town, the capital, Christine Perakis said
most of the homes had their roofs torn off.
“We have been in shock for a couple of days,” she said. “It’s the most intense thing I’ve ever seen.”
Severe flooding in the Bahamas
Residents
of the western Bahamas braced for Irma on Saturday even as the
hurricane ripped apart sea walls, destroyed wooden homes and eroded
roads on the nearby southern and central islands.
Severe
flooding was reported on Acklins, where the settlement of Salina Point
was cut off from the rest of the island, according to early reports from
that area.
“There’s
been significant damage to houses on Ragged Island, and in certain
parts of Acklins there’s been a lot of road erosion,” said Dion Foulkes,
the Bahamas’ minister of labor and consumer affairs, and a liaison with
the National Emergency Management Agency in Nassau.
He said stone structures had fared well in the storm, and so far there have been no reports of deaths or injuries.
As
soon as conditions permit, the Jamaican Defense Force has agreed to
survey the affected Bahamian islands, Hubert Minnis, the Bahamian prime
minister, said.
Bimini,
Grand Bahama and Andros are expected to be the last group of Bahamian
islands affected by Irma, starting early Sunday through Monday morning.
Around
300 residents of Bimini have been evacuated, and residents of the
low-lying West End, Grand Bahama, have been urged to relocate east.
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