UPDATED: 6:40am – US authorities are urging residents to prepare for a “record-breaking” hurricane headed toward Florida as the storm known as Irma brings destruction to the Caribbean.
“A new and it seems to be record-breaking hurricane heading right toward Florida, Puerto Rico, and other places,” US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday.
The category-5 storm with winds of 295 kilometres per hour was one of the most powerful ever recorded in the Atlantic, officials said.
It was headed toward the Virgin Islands and hurricane warnings were in place for much of the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republica, Haiti and the Bahamas, the US National Hurricane Center said.
The US territory of Puerto Rico had declared a state of emergency and residents feared the island’s electrical system was vulnerable to weeks or months of disruption, broadcaster CNN reported.
Irma had already destroyed several of the strongest buildings on the island of St Martin, local media reported.
The governor of Florida meanwhile warned residents that the approaching hurricane Irma could be more powerful than the strongest storm ever to hit the southern state.
“The storm is bigger, faster and stronger than hurricane Andrew,” Governor Rick Scott said, pointing to a storm that devastated the state 25 years ago in August 1992. That storm was the largest to hit the state and the costliest in US history until hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.
Scott warned the entire state to be prepared, stressing the path of the storm was unclear after it is due to hit the Florida Keys, islands off the state’s south-west coast, on Sunday.
Irma is just the fifth Atlantic hurricane to have maximum sustained winds of 295 kph or greater, according to Phil Klotzbach, a tropical scientist at Colorado State University quoted by the Weather Channel.
It comes on the heels of Hurricane Harvey, which developed into a category-4 storm in the Gulf of Mexico before slamming into Texas last month and causing widespread damage in Houston and other areas.
-NewstalkZB
