‘Time to hunker down’: Florida braces for the worst has Hurricane Irma makes landfall
Tens of thousands of people flee their homes after Cuba is hit by the monster storm
Hurricane Irma’s eye wall slammed into the Florida Keys on Sunday, lashing the island chain with fearsome wind gusts as it bore down on the state’s west coast where a mass exodus had turned cities into ghost towns.
Irma, packing maximum sustained winds of 215km/h, was upgraded overnight to a category 4 storm as it closed in on the Keys, the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said. More than 6 million people – one third of the state’s population – were ordered to evacuate their homes ahead of the monster storm.
The eye of the hurricane was about 32km east-southeast of Key West at 8am local time on Sunday, threatening dangerous storm surges of up to 4.5 metres – as high as a house. More than 1 million homes and businesses lost power as the monster storm threatened the state’s coast with potentially catastrophic flooding.
“Everyone in the Florida Keys ... It is time to hunker down,” the National Weather Service warned before the hurricane rammed into the tropical islands, which are popular for fishing, boating and scuba diving.
“The worst winds are yet to come.”
