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Irma pummels Cuba as Florida hunkers for a hit
By Leila Macor with Rigoberto Diaz in Caibarien, Cuba
Miami (AFP) Sept 9, 2017


Hurricane records broken in 2017
Paris (AFP) Sept 8, 2017 - Not even halfway into the 2017 hurricane season, and before Irma makes landfall in Florida, tropical mega-storms in the Atlantic basin have already broken several records, and challenged others, experts say.

A few that stand out, so far:

- So strong for so long -

As it swept across the Caribbean, Hurricane Irma generated winds averaging just over 295 kilometres per hour (185 miles per hour) for more than 33 hours, longer than any super-storm of comparable power ever recorded.

"Such an intensity, for such a long period, has never been observed in the satellite era" that began in the early 1970s, Etienne Kapikian, a forecaster at Meteo France, said.

The runner up is Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,000 people dead or missing in the Philippines and packed winds of the same speed for 24 hours in 2013.

- Atlantic surge -

Irma was the first hurricane on record to reach Category 5 status -- the highest intensity level -- while still in the Atlantic Ocean, before entering the balmy waters of the Caribbean Sea, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

Tropical storms draw strength from surface waters warmer than 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit).

The fact that the swirling mass of clouds and water was able to turbo-charge over the Atlantic -- whose waters are cooler than the Caribbean but warmer than a few decades ago -- is consistent with global warming, scientists say.

Category 5 tropical storms produce sustained winds of at least 252 km/h for at least a minute at a time. Irma has since dropped down to Category 4.

- $10 billion cost -

Hurricane Irma has so far caused more than $10 billion (8.3 billion euros) in economic losses across the Caribbean, making it the costliest storm ever for the region's island nations and territories, according to the Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology, based in Karlsruhe, Germany.

The tally is sure to rise as the storm hits the Bahamas on its way to Florida, but it has already surpassed the damage record set by Hurricanes Ike in 2008, and Hugo in 1989, at $9.4 billion each in today's dollars.

Hardest hit by Irma were Sint Maarten ($2.5 billion) and the US Virgin Islands ($2.45 billion), followed by Saint Martin ($1.55 billion) and the British Virgin Islands ($1.4 billion), according to the estimate.

- Rain, rain, rain -

Tropical storm Harvey -- which made landfall in Texas as a Category 4 hurricane on August 25 -- dumped more rain in places than any cyclone ever measured on the continental United States.

In one area southeast of Houston, Harvey unloaded more than 125 centimetres of water (nearly 50 inches), breaking the previous record (122 cm) set by cyclone Amelia.

- Second-fastest hurricane -

The highest sustained wind speed ever registered for an Atlantic basin storm was 305 km/h (190 mph), for Hurricane Allen, which caused several hundred deaths in Haiti and over a billion dollars in damage.

With consistent winds of 295 km/h, Irma shares the title of second-fastest hurricane with Wilma (2005), Gilbert (1988) and the notorious "Labour Day" storm that devastated southern Florida in 1935.

- Three's a crowd -

Along with Irma, the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico is host to two other hurricanes: the Category 4 Jose, projected to leave inhabited islands largely untouched on its northwest trajectory, and Category 2 Katia, due to make landfall in the Mexican state of Veracruz.

Three-at-once is not unprecedented, but it is rare -- it last occurred in 2010. Those storms, however, spun harmlessly in the Atlantic, while this time, two of them are hitting land.

The event of four active hurricanes hitting at one time has happened twice -- in 1893 and 1998 when Hurricanes Georges, Ivan, Jeanne and Karl all raged simultaneously.

Hurricane Irma pummeled the north coast of Cuba Saturday, inflicting major 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 it to a Category Three, but it is still packing winds of 125 miles (200 kilometer) per hour.

The eye of the storm is "beginning to move slowly away from the coast of Cuba, while weather is deteriorating in South Florida," the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory, with Irma just 115 miles southeast of Key West.

"Irma is forecast to restrengthen once it moves away from Cuba and remain a powerful hurricane as it approaches Florida" early Sunday, it added.

At least 25 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.

The Cuban government extended its maximum state of alert to include Havana and neighboring provinces amid fears of flooding in low-lying areas.

Terrified Cubans who rode out Irma in coastal towns reported "deafening" winds, uprooted trees and power lines, and blown rooftops.

In the seaside town of Caibarien, the storm knocked down walls and littered the streets with tree branches, roof tiles and other debris.

Francis, a 19-year-old who lives near the Caibarien sea wall, said she fled to her grandfather's house as storm waters reached her street corner.

"It must be full of water," she said of her house.

More than a million people evacuated from vulnerable areas in Cuba. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but officials reported "significant damage."

- Shifting track -

In Florida, cities on both the east and west coasts of the peninsular state took on the appearance of ghost towns, as nervous residents heeded insistent evacuation orders affecting 6.3 million people, nearly a third of the state's population.

The storm's forecast track has shifted slightly, so it now looks bound for Florida's west Gulf coast instead of the Atlantic coast, with landfall expected early Sunday in the Florida Keys.

But Irma is so wide that authorities were bracing for destructive storm surges on both coasts and the Keys, the chain of low-lying islands that stretch south of Miami toward Cuba.

And hurricane-force winds are expected to lash the peninsula as it rolls north toward Georgia.

On highway 75 along the western coast of Florida, a steady stream of cars pressed northward as thousands fled at the last minute from the fast-approaching killer hurricane.

Strip malls, fast food restaurants and retail giants were all closed for business.

In Key West, police opened a "shelter of last resort" for those who had ignored mandatory evacuation orders.

Flood-prone Miami Beach, also under mandatory evacuation order, has been emptied of people but is bracing for high waters.

Scott Abraham, who lives on the fifth floor of a beachfront apartment building, is planning to ride the storm out with his wife and two kids.

"If I lived in a house I would have left, but if it gets flooded here it's going to take a week at least to come back. I don't want that," he said.

In Miami, a big worry was the two dozen or so giant construction cranes in the downtown area. Though designed to withstand hurricane winds, city officials are warning people to stay away from them.

- Mass exodus -

Across the peninsula, the Gulf coast city of Fort Myers also was battening down for Irma's screaming winds, rain and storm surge.

"This is a worst case scenario for our city. And our region," Mayor Randall Henderson told CNN.

Warning that Irma would be worse than Hurricane Andrew -- which killed 65 people in 1992 -- Florida's governor said all 20.6 million Floridians should prepare to flee.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic snaked north out of the state, with mattresses, gas cans and kayaks strapped to car roofs.

Cuban-American Orlando Reyes, 82, was forced to leave his assisted living facility in Miami Beach.

"It is frightening," he told AFP at a shelter in Miami. "We had to leave without a cent, without taking a bath, or bringing anything."

- Path of destruction -

The storm smashed through a string of Caribbean islands, beginning with tiny Barbuda on Wednesday, followed by the holiday islands of Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin.

Also affected were the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and the Turks and Caicos. The Bahamas were spared Irma's worst.

"Houses are smashed, the airport is out of action," Saint Barthelemy resident Olivier Toussaint told AFP.

"Upside-down cars are in the cemeteries. Boats are sunk in the marina, shops are destroyed."

Meteorologists meanwhile were closely monitoring two other Atlantic storms.

Jose, a powerful Category Four storm, was heading toward the same string of Caribbean islands Irma has pummeled in recent days.

France's meteorological agency issued its highest warning for Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy, saying Jose could become a "dangerous event of exceptional intensity."

The deteriorating weather grounded aircraft and prevented boats from bringing relief supplies to hard-hit islands.

Mudslides unleashed by the heavy rains of Katia, which made landfall in eastern Mexico late Friday as a Category One hurricane, caused two deaths.

- Storm's toll -

The US military was mobilizing thousands of troops and deploying several large ships to aid with evacuations and humanitarian relief, as the Air Force removed scores of planes from the southern United States.

Meanwhile, the death toll from across the islands has continued to rise.

Six were reported killed in the British Virgin Islands and Anguilla, including an elderly man who was crushed when his house collapsed.

Two were killed in Puerto Rico, and four more in the US Virgin Islands.

A child died in Barbuda, at least 10 in France's Caribbean territories, and two more on the Dutch side of St Martin.

burs-oh/ia

SHAKE AND BLOW
'Devastation' as Hurricane Irma slams Caribbean
Marigot (AFP) Sept 7, 2017
Hurricane Irma sowed a trail of deadly devastation through the Caribbean on Wednesday, reducing to rubble the tropical islands of Barbuda and St Martin and claiming at least seven lives. One of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, the dangerous Category Five hurricane was churning off the north coast of Puerto Rico on Wednesday night, on a potential collision course with south Florid ... read more

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