MIAMI — Outer bands of the unusually powerful Hurricane Irma battered parts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Thursday morning, threatening serious flooding a day after leaving severe destruction and at least 10 dead across a string of Caribbean islands to the east.
Irma — currently a Category 5 storm with 175 mph sustained winds — knocked out electricity a day earlier to more than 1 million customers in Puerto Rico as it churned off the US territory, and devastated smaller islands, including Barbuda and the British Virgin Islands.
Irma could next hit the Atlantic archipelagos of the Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas — and by the weekend may reach a nervous Florida, where people have flocked to stores to prepare and some communities have ordered evacuations.
A hurricane watch has been issued for parts of the Florida Keys and South Florida, including the Naples, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach areas.
“Regardless of which (Florida) coast you live on, be prepared to evacuate,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Thursday at a news conference in Hialeah.
Mandatory evacuations have been issued for the Keys and low-lying parts of Miami-Dade and Broward counties, but Scott said others in Florida need to watch Irma’s path and be ready to move.
“This is not a storm you can sit and wait through. … We can’t save you after the storm starts,” he said.
Meanwhile, the northeastern Caribbean islands just hit by Irma are anxiously watching Hurricane Jose to the east. On Thursday, Antigua and Barbuda issued a hurricane watch for Jose, which could pass close to those islands Saturday.
Irma left at least 10 people dead Wednesday, including six on St. Martin, two on St. Bart’s, one on Anguilla, and one on Barbuda. The latter is barely habitable, with nearly all its buildings damaged, the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda said.
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Here are the latest developments:
— Around 11 a.m. ET, Irma’s center was about 75 miles east-northeast of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, moving west-northwest with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph. Irma previously had winds over 180 mph, keeping those speeds longer than any storm ever recorded.
— On Thursday morning, Irma’s powerful core was moving off the mountainous northern coasts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and could leave up to 15 inches of rain — amounts that could trigger dangerous flooding and mudslides, the National Hurricane Center said.
— Scott, Florida’s governor, said Thursday he has directed state law enforcement to escort gas trucks to gas stations in an attempt to address reported fuel shortages. “We know fuel is very important” as people prepare to evacuate inland, he said. “While we’re making progress, you will see lines and outages, unfortunately.”
— Barbuda, one of two major islands in the nation of Antigua and Barbuda, took a major hit Wednesday, with about 95% of its buildings damaged, Prime Minister Gaston Browne said.
— Browne described the damage as “unprecedented” and “absolutely devastating,” estimating it will cost $100 million to rebuild.
— Irma is one of three active hurricanes in the Atlantic basin — the last time this happened was in 2010. Jose, in the open Atlantic far to the southeast of Irma, has become a hurricane, as has Katia in the Gulf of Mexico.
— A hurricane warning is in effect for some areas in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Hurricane or tropical storm conditions also are possible late this week in parts of Cuba.
— Irma has maintained intensity above 180 mph longer than any storm in Atlantic basin history.
Turks and Caicos, Bahamas in Irma’s path
Irma could be near the low-lying Turks and Caicos Islands on Thursday night and parts of the Bahamas on Friday.
Storm surges could reach up to 20 feet, the National Hurricane Center says — twice as high as some of the islands’ elevations.
“Some of these Turks and Caicos (Islands) will be completely overwashed,” CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said.
The Turks and Caicos are a British overseas territory with about 35,000 people. Officials there are “working intensively on disaster preparedness and response … (and) liaising with their counterparts in the Cayman Islands for assistance,” UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister Alan Duncan said Thursday.
The Bahamas, a nation of about 390,000, ordered evacuations for six southern islands — Mayaguana, Inagua, Crooked Island, Acklins, Long Cay and Ragged Island.
“This is the largest such evacuation in the history of the country,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said.
Will it hit Florida?
Some computer models show Irma could churn near Florida’s southern and east coasts by early Sunday. Officials are ordering some evacuations and shutting down schools.
The tropical storm-force wind field from Irma stretches over 300 miles from end to end. If it were centered over New York City, the tropical storm-force winds would stretch from Baltimore to Boston.
Many spent Wednesday stocking up on food or making plans to head inland. Hurricane watches may be issued for parts of South Florida and the Keys on Thursday.
In Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale and other cities north of Miami, a mandatory evacuation will go into effect at noon Thursday for some areas, Mayor Barbara Sharief said.
Miami-Dade County ordered people out in some areas, including mobile homes and barrier islands.
Florida is not the only state preparing for possible impact.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has declared a state of emergency for all 100 counties, while his Georgia counterpart, Nathan Deal, issued a state of emergency for six coastal counties. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster also declared a state of emergency.
Trail of destruction
Irma’s eye passed directly over Barbuda on Wednesday, leaving the small island’s 1,800 residents largely incommunicado after it knocked over the telecommunications system and cell towers.
“It looks like garbage disposal,” Marlon Carr, a photographer who toured the island with the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, told CNN on Thursday. “There was rubble and roof galvanized all over the island. It looked like some of the houses … were imploded on.
“The rubble stayed in the same position the house was, but it was flat — completely flat.”
Witnesses told him of “40-foot containers flying, animals flying” during the storm. Some spoke of taking shelter in bathrooms as their homes were torn apart.
With so many houses destroyed, officials are transporting people from Barbuda to the nation’s more populous Antigua island, he said.
In St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, Kelsey Nowakowski posted images to Instagram of the aftermath there.
“This doesn’t look like it was ever a tropical paradise. It looks like an eerie fairytale forest,” she said in her post. “During the storm there were a handful of times when we thought we were losing the house’s roof on the floor above, but when we emerged we found our roof intact.”
Michael Coleman took shelter in a cement bunker in St. Thomas.
“The wind was so intense. Trees and roofs flying,” he said.
He posted a video on Twitter showing mangled patio and roofing scattered all around.
In Puerto Rico, about 56,680 customers were without water, with the US territory’s northeast hit the hardest, according to Jesus Poupart of the emergency operations center. Emergency officials are still taking in reports to determine the extent of the damage.
In the beachside area of Piñones near San Juan, Irma tore the roof off Cristian López’s fried-food restaurant. He said he wouldn’t be able to reopen the place for about five days.
“At least we are all alive,” he said.
In the northeast city of Fajardo, authorities conducted at least 10 rescues, an emergency dispatcher there told CNN. Of those, five were from flooded homes, two of people trapped in vehicles, and three who were trapped in an elevator, the dispatcher said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries in the US territory of about 3.4 million people.
