Hurricane Irma churns through Caribbean islands, possibly en route to Florida
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Monster Hurricane Irma slammed
across islands in the northern Caribbean on Wednesday, packing a
potentially catastrophic mix of pounding winds, raging surf and rain en
route to a possible Florida landfall this weekend.
Irma is
expected to become the second powerful storm to thrash the U.S. mainland
in as many weeks but its precise trajectory was uncertain. Hurricane
Harvey killed more than 60 people and caused as much as $180 billion in
damage after hitting Texas late last month.
The eye of Irma, a
Category 5 storm with winds of 185 miles per hour (295 km per hour),
passed over the island of St. Martin, east of the U.S. territory of
Puerto Rico, on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami
said. Category 5 is its highest category.
In Puerto Rico's capital
of San Juan, a handful of people stood on the wind-whipped shore of a
beachfront park on Wednesday morning to take a last look at the ocean
before seeking shelter.
"I am worried. This is going to be a huge storm, bigger than I have ever seen," said Angelica Flecha, 45.
She has stocked her second-floor home with food and water and put
metal storm shutters on the windows, but was worried about a storm surge
on the island, which is under a hurricane warning.
Most
businesses were closed and streets were almost empty. Cars packed
parking lots of stores that were still open, with shoppers stuffing ice
and water into their trunks.
Puerto Rico's Governor Ricardo
Rossello urged the island's 3.4 million residents to seek refuge in one
of 460 hurricane shelters.
It was not immediately clear how much damage Irma had done as it swept west.
Two
American tourists in the French territory of Guadeloupe, Loren Ann Mayo
and Rachel Scharett, told CNN they were weathering the storm in their
hotel room's bathroom.
Following a loud cracking noise, Mayo said, "The balcony snapped and is now hanging on by one little piece of wire."
Emergency
officials on Antigua and Barbuda reported three injuries but minimal
damage, with some roofs blown off. Communications between the islands
were cut off, officials said.
"MUCH TO FEAR"
Several other
Leeward Islands, including Anguilla, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, as
well as the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, and the Dominican Republic
were under a hurricane warning.
In Paris, the French government said it had delivered water and food
to two of its overseas territories, St. Martin and St. Barthelemy, and
that emergency response teams would be sent once the storm had passed.
Power was knocked out on both islands, according to prefecture officials on Guadeloupe.
French
Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said at least four buildings were
damaged, including the prefecture, a fire brigade barracks and a police
building and that low-lying regions had been flooded.
"For now we're not aware of any deaths," Collomb told reporters in Paris.
French
Overseas Territories Minister Annick Girardin said "there were was much
to fear" for citizens who had not heeded calls to seek safety in more
secure buildings.
Irma ranked as one of the five most powerful
Atlantic hurricanes in the last 80 years and the strongest Atlantic
storm recorded by the outside the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico,
according to the NHC.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter
on Wednesday that he was monitoring the storm closely. He approved
emergency declarations for Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin
Islands, mobilizing federal disaster relief efforts, the White House
said.
Authorities in the Florida Keys ordered a mandatory
evacuation of visitors to start at sunrise on Wednesday. Public schools
throughout South Florida were ordered closed, some as early as
Wednesday.
Residents of low-lying areas in densely populated Miami-Dade County were urged to move to higher ground.
Florida
Governor Rick Scott said there would be more mandatory evacuations
around the state asIrma approached and as surges were expected to reach
10 feet (3 meters).
"We can rebuild your home, we can't rebuild your life," Scott said on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Irma
could be worse than Hurricane Andrew, which devastated the state in
1992. "We don't know exactly where this is going to hit," he told ABC.
"It sure looks like it's going to bear down right in the middle of
Florida."
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock
Long, speaking on the "CBS This Morning" program, said he was confident
FEMA could handle Irma, even as he acknowledged potential staffing
strains so soon after Hurricane Harvey struck Texas.
Residents of
Texas and Louisiana were still recovering from Harvey, which struck
Texas as a Category 4 hurricane on Aug. 25. It dumped several feet of
rain, destroying thousands of homes and businesses, and displaced more
than 1 million people.
(Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in
Milwaukee, Ian Simpson and Susan Heavey in Washington, and Richard
Lough in Paris; Editing by Catherine Evans and Jeffrey Benkoe)
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