Hurricane Irma: 5.6 million ordered to flee as Florida braces for direct hit
Irma was expected to strike the Florida Keys late Saturday and Sunday before moving inland, and many residents have joined a mass exodus amid increasingly dire alerts to leave
Hurricane Irma pummelled the north coast of Cuba Saturday, inflicting “significant damage” as millions of people in the US state of Florida hunkered down for a direct hit from the monster storm.
Irma’s blast through the Cuban coastline weakened the storm to a Category Three, but it is still packing 205 kilometre per hour and was expected to regain power before hitting the Florida Keys early Sunday, US forecasters.
At least 19 people have been killed since Irma began its devastating march through the Caribbean as a Category Five storm of nearly unmatched power, making landfall late Friday in Cuba on the Camaguey archipelago.
Terrified Cubans who rode out Irma in coastal towns reported “deafening” winds, uprooted trees and power lines, and blown rooftops.
“What’s out there is terrible,” said Gisela Fernandez, a 42-year-old nurse, after the storm whipped the town in Chapara in the province of Las Tunas Friday.
“It’s finished raining, but all night long there were terrible winds.”
Watch: Hurricane Irma pounds Caribbean and is heading for Florida
