Hurricane Irma, the 9th named storm of this Atlantic Hurricane season, made two landfalls in Florida on Sunday. First, its eye crossed Cudjoe Key, just east of Key West, as a category-4 hurricane. Then, a few hours later, it came ashore at Marco Island on the state’s Gulf Coast as a category-3 storm.
Measuring about 425 miles in diameter, Irma was wider than the Florida peninsula and its effects were felt across the entire Sunshine state. Powerful winds, heavy rain, and storm surge flooding caused catastrophic property damage in the Keys and along both coasts.
In the west, Naples, FL experienced wind gusts up to 142mph – the strongest recorded during the storm. On the east coast, gusts were clocked up to 109mph in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area, where three high-rise construction cranes collapsed in the strong winds. The storm surge in both Biscayne Bay and Naples was about four feet above normal tide levels. In the hard hit Keys, according to FEMA, 25% of homes were completely destroyed and about 65% sustained serious damage.
Reports of toppled trees and downed power lines are widespread. The Department of Homeland Security says 15 million people lost power, making it one of the largest power outages in US history.
Moving north and shifting inland, Irma was downgraded to a tropical storm on Monday. Nevertheless, it continued to pack a powerful punch. Jacksonville, FL reported a record six-foot storm surge and the worst flooding it has seen since Hurricane Dora moved through the area in 1964.
Irma’s wrath was also felt in parts of Georgia and the Carolinas. Along the coast, storm surge flooding inundated communities from Savannah, GA to Charleston, SC. Further inland, the NWS issued its first ever tropical storm warning for the metro-Atlanta area.
Coming just sixteen days after Hurricane Harvey, Irma was the second category-4 storm to make landfall in the US this season. In 166 years of record keeping, never before have two Atlantic hurricanes of such intensity hit this country during the same year.
The death toll from this historic storm currently stands at forty-three, including five fatalities reported in Florida, three in Georgia, and one in South Carolina. The rest are from the Caribbean, where Irma hit multiple islands as a Category 5 storm late last week. Sadly, these numbers are expected to rise as search and rescue efforts continue. The entire region faces a long and expensive road to recovery ahead.
Hurricane Irma makes landfall in southern Florida as a Category-4 storm. Credit: NASA