With Houston and much of southeast Texas still struggling to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, the United States is bracing for what could be an even more catastrophic storm, Hurricane Irma, which as per current projections is said to hammer Florida by the weekend.
At least 10 people were killed as Hurricane Irma hammered a string of northeast Caribbean islands, thrashing them with rain and lashing with winds of up to 180 mph or 288 kmph, ahead of making landfall in the US state of Florida later this week. The hurricane battered several islands, including Barbuda, St. Martin and the British Virgin Islands.
After pounding a string of Caribbean islands with wind speeds of up to 185 miles (nearly 300 km) an hour, notably Barbuda, where
95 per cent of the buildings have been severely damaged, Irma is said to be heading towards Florida.
Having learned the bitter lessons from Texas where large numbers of residents continued to stay put in their homes, Florida has issued calls for mass evacuations.
President Donald Trump has already declared a state of emergency in Florida, besides Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands that have already been struck by Irma.
“Watching hurricane closely. My team, which has done, and is doing, such a good job in Texas, is already in Florida. No rest for the weary!” Trump tweeted on Wednesday.
Governor Rick Scott said on Thursday that the state of emergency covers all of Florida’s 67 counties, with evacuations in place for Florida Keys and parts of Miami and Fort lauderdale.
About 1,000 National Guard troops have already been deployed, with State Government offices ordered to remain closed on Friday, ahead of the hurricane expected to hit the coast late on Saturday or early Sunday. Irma is being projected as a Category 5 storm and one of the strongest ever recorded in the Atlantic.
CNN reported that the US’s Global Forecasting System shows Irma striking Florida’s east coast, while the European forecast suggests it will hit further to the west and severely impacting the whole State.
“If you’re in an evacuation area, do not wait to get out,” Governor Scott said on Thursday, warning residents: “We can’t save you after the storm starts.” Stating that “this is not a storm you can sit and wait through”, he said, stressing: “Every Florida family must be prepared to evacuate regardless of the coast you live on.”
Recalling the horrors of Hurricane Andrew, the last major Category 5 hurricane to strike Florida back in 1992 that killed 65 people and destroyed or damaged nearly 200,000 homes, Scott said: “We’re going to have downed power lines, we’re going to have debris, we’re going to have all those typical things.”
“We’ve got to survive this storm, and then we’ve got to get back,” Scott said. He, however, did not expect the level of flooding that was seen in Houston and other Texas cities since Irma, unlike Harvey, is said to be moving fast.