Tampa Bay braces for the full impact of Hurricane Irma as the storm heads towards southwestern Florida, bringing the risk of severe floods.
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| Dark clouds are seen over Miami's skyline prior to the arrival of Hurricane Irma to south Florida, US, September 9, 2017. |
With the window closing fast for anyone wanting to escape,
Irma hurtled toward Florida with 125 mph winds Saturday on a shifting
course that threatened the first direct hit on the Tampa area from a
major hurricane in nearly a century.
That represented a
significant turn in the forecast, which for days had made it look
instead as if the Miami metropolitan area of 6 million people was going
to get slammed head-on by the Big One.
"You don't want
to play with this thing," Sen. Marco Rubio warned during a visit to the
Miami-Dade Emergency Operations Center. "People will die from this."
Forecasters
predicted Irma's centre would blow ashore Sunday in the perilously
low-lying Florida Keys, then hit southwestern Florida, move up the
state's Gulf Coast and plow into the Tampa Bay area.
TRT World spoke to Giles Gibson who had updates from Fort Lauderdale.
The
storm centre itself is expected to miss Miami, but the metro area will
still get pounded with life-threatening hurricane winds, National
Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said.
Tampa
has not been struck by a major hurricane since 1921, when its population
was about 10,000, Feltgen said. Now the area has around 3 million
people and encompasses two of Florida's biggest cities: Tampa and St.
Petersburg.
As the storm closed in on the Sunshine
State, it pounded Cuba and left more than 20 people dead in its wake
across the Caribbean after ravaging such resort islands as St. Martin,
St. Barts, St. Thomas, Barbuda and Antigua.
Irma weakened slightly in the morning but was expected to pick up strength again before slamming Florida.
On
Saturday morning, the hurricane's outer bands blew into South Florida
as residents scrambled to leave. Damaging winds were moving into areas
including Key Biscayne and Coral Gables, and gusts up to 56 mph (90 kph)
were reported off Miami.
6.3 million evacuated
In
one of the biggest evacuations ever ordered in the US, about 6.3
million people in Florida — more than one-quarter of the state's
population — were warned to leave, and 540,000 were directed to clear
out from the Georgia coast. Authorities opened hundreds of shelters for
people who did not leave. Hotels as far away as Atlanta filled up with
evacuees.
"If you are planning to leave and do not leave
tonight, you will have to ride out this extremely dangerous storm at
your own risk," Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Friday. He urged everybody
in the Keys to get out.
Major tourist attractions,
including the Disney World parks, Universal Studios and Sea World, all
prepared to close Saturday. The Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports shut
down, and those in Orlando and Tampa planned to do the same later in the
day.
With
winds that peaked at 185 mph (300 kph), Irma was once the most powerful
hurricane ever recorded in the open Atlantic. But given its mammoth
size and strength and its projected course, it could still prove one of
the most devastating hurricanes ever to hit Florida and could inflict
damage on a scale not seen here in 25 years.
It could
also test the Federal Emergency Management Agency's ability to handle
two crises at the same time. FEMA is still dealing with aftermath of
catastrophic Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area.
Gas
shortages and gridlock plagued the evacuations, turning normally simple
trips into tests of will. Parts of interstates 75 and 95 north were
bumper-to-bumper, while very few cars drove in the southbound lanes.
In
suburban Palm Beach County on the state's Atlantic coast, the streets
were nearly deserted early Saturday as the first squall from Irma
dropped a brief shower over the area. Gas stations ran out of fuel,
grocery stores were closed and only a few fast-food restaurants were
open.
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