Leviathan Irma decimates

Hurricane Irma, which has toppled cranes, swallowed streets and left millions without power, weakened to a category one storm Monday but remained dangerous as it continued its furious climb up Florida's southwest coast.Warnings of hazardous storm surges remained in effect through vast swaths of peninsular Florida, where more than six million people had been ordered to flee Irma's path - one of the biggest evacuations in US history.“As little as six inches of moving water can knock you down,” tweeted the state's governor Rick Scott following the downgrade.“Stay inside. Stay safe,” he added.Maximum sustained winds had decreased to 85 miles per hour (137 km/h) as of 06:00 GMT.After wreaking a trail of death and destruction through the Caribbean, Irma had killed three people when it struck the southern Florida Keys island chain as a more powerful Category Four on Sunday.More than four million customers were without power throughout the state, according to Florida's division of emergency management. Florida Power and Light said it had “safely shut down” one of two nuclear reactors at its Turkey Point power plant.Handfuls of holdout residents, having defied calls to evacuate, hunkered down as Irma tore over the Keys, ripping boats from their moorings, flattening palm trees and downing power lines across the island chain popular for fishing and scuba diving.Hours later, one of the mightiest hurricanes ever to slam the state made a second landfall on Marco Island near the beach resort of Naples.“I am concerned about people that don't believe in the storm surge,” said Virginia Defreeuw, 76, who fled her mobile home in Naples to a shelter. “You need to be afraid of the storm surge! People are not listening.”As Irma appeared to set its sights on the Tampa area - home to three million residents, about half of whom live less than 10 feet above sea level - some people were taken by surprise by Irma's northwest shift.Facing Irma's wrath, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said the city did everything it could to get people out of the coastal areas.“I never thought I would be quoting Mike Tyson, but 'Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face,'” he said.“Well, we are about to get punched in the face.”While southwest Florida bore the deadly brunt of Irma's wrath Sunday, the coastlines of Miami and the neighbouring island of Miami Beach were heavily inundated by storm surges as hurricane winds sent two giant construction cranes crashing down.The sea swallowed the coastal walkway of glitzy Brickell Avenue in the centre of Miami, flooding the streets and leaving cars half-submerged.“The wooden pier is basically gone,” said Steven Schlacknam, a 51-year-old visual artist watching from a 37th floor apartment.President Donald Trump, who vowed to travel to Florida “very soon,” approved the state's request for emergency federal aid to help with temporary housing, home repairs, emergency work and hazard mitigation.“Right now, we're worried about lives, not cost,” Trump said.At least 30 deaths are already attributable to the storm. Irma smacked the Keys 57 years to the day after Hurricane Donna hit the same area in 1960, destroying nearly 75 percent of the island chain's buildings.Before reaching the United States, Irma smashed through a string of Caribbean islands from tiny Barbuda on Wednesday, to the tropical paradises of Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin, the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and the Turks and Caicos.Terrified Cubans who rode out Irma in coastal towns - after it made landfall Friday on the Camaguey archipelago as a maximum-strength category five storm - reported “deafening” winds, uprooted trees and power lines, and rooftops blown off.Hurricane Irma ripped roofs off houses and flooded hundreds of kilometres of coastline as it raked Cuba's northern coast after devastating islands the length of the Caribbean.There were no immediate reports of deaths in Cuba – a country that prides itself on its disaster preparedness – but authorities were trying to restore power, clear roads and warning that people should stay off the streets of Havana because flooding could continue into Monday.Residents of “the capital should know that the flooding is going to last more than 36 hours, in other words, it is going to persist,” Colonel Luis Angel Macareno said late on Saturday, adding that the waters had reached about 600 meters into Havana.As Irma rolled in, Cuban soldiers went through coastal towns to force residents to evacuate, taking people to shelters at government buildings and schools — and even caves.Video images from northern and eastern Cuba showed uprooted utility poles and signs, many downed trees and extensive damage to roofs. Witnesses said a provincial museum near the eye of the storm was in ruins. And authorities in the city of Santa Clara said 39 buildings collapsed.More than 5 000 tourists were evacuated from the keys off Cuba's north-central coast, where the government has built dozens of resorts in recent years.Civil defence official Gregorio Torres said authorities were trying to tally the extent of the damage in eastern Cuba, home to hundreds of rural communities and farmland.In Caibarien, a small coastal city about 320 kilometres east of Havana, winds downed power lines and a three-block area was under water. Many residents had stayed put, hoping to ride out the storm.Many of Irma's victims fled their battered islands on ferries and fishing boats for fear Hurricane Jose would destroy or drench anything Irma left untouched, but Jose veered away before doing much more damage. NAMPA/AFP

Leviathan Irma decimates

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-02

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Leviathan Irma decimates

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-02

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