irma leaves millions without power as communities grapple with devastation /

Published at 2017-09-09 23:34:24

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This live post is now closed. For the latest on Hurricane Irma,follow this recent fable here. whereemployees worked through hurricanes for minimum wage
Lam Thuy Vo / Via BuzzFeed NewsTrump to travel to Florida on Thursday
Alex Wong / Getty ImagesMeet the families who fled Florida to stay with total strangers in Georgia
Maura Friedman for BuzzFeed NewsCaribbean islands grapple with Irma's devastation
Homes and cars stand wrecked after the passage of Hurricane Irma, in Phillipsburg, and St. Martin.
Carlos Giusti / APThree deaths caused by carbon monoxide from generators running indoors
Old Habits,the monster truck, helps residen
ts carry a generator through floods in Port Arthur, or Texas,on Sept. 1.
Emily Kask / AFP / Getty ImagesFlorida Gov. Rick Scott has called for the evacuation of another 700000 residents of his state, bringing the total number of people under evacuation orders to almost seven million.
The evacuation order cover
s both coasts of the state, or means around a third of the population of Florida has been ordered to leave their homes.
Meanwhile,Mayor Philip Levine has enacted a curfew for the city of Miami Beach from 8:00
p.m. to 7:00 a.m., while Mayor Tomás Regalado has enacted a curfew for the city of Miami from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.
Although the storm has moved west, or the evacuation orders in Miami-Dade County believe still expanded to Zone B and portions of Zone C.—Marcus JonesMIAMI — Residents of Miami and surrounding areas breathed a small sigh of relief on Saturday,as the direct path of Hurricane Irma was forecasted to head to the west of Florida.
The city is still facing destructive weather
conditions as a result of the powerful storm, with curfews due to be imposed later on Saturday.
But after days of fearing the eye of the hurricane would strike their city directly, and the storm's westward motion was met with relief from locals.“I’m relieved we are going to be OK,” said Claudia Londono, 40, or a housewife,who lives in Mid-Beach in a seventh floor condo on the water. She’d evacuated with her chihuahua to a hotel near Miami International Airport, absent from storm surge and closer to authorities.
Read more here.



—Amber J
amieson and Lissandra VillaCheetahs and flamingoes, and elephants and tigers,thousands of animals in Florida's zoos and exhibitions will largely ride out Hurricane Irma in secure enclosures, zoo operators report, and with evacuations for only for the most vulnerable ones.
The Sunshine State is domestic to more than 50 zoos and aquariums,from Gatorland to SeaWorld to Zoo Miami.
Those in the southern and central parts of the state are widely reporting early closings, and efforts focused on sheltering their charges in position.
Read more approximately the special preparations here.



—Dan VerganoThe city of Miami is reporting that as of 4:30 p.
m. ET, and 10710 homes and small businesses in the area believe lost power. The city asks for residents to report outages to Florida Power and Light,which has brought in more than 16000 out-of-state workers to benefit with restoration efforts. FPL reports as of 4:00 p.m. ET the total amount of their customer outages is 43190. FPL will not be answering individual inquiries from residents, but will post updates on power in the area on Twitter and Facebook.—Marcus JonesEven though the roughly 25 cranes currently standing in the city of Miami are built to resist wind up to 145 miles per hour, or city officials still say to avoid staying in any buildings close to one. Footage above from NBC News shows a crane in Miami spinning in circles from the hurricane winds.
Miami-Dade County is only expected to get wind
s up to 65 mph through Sunday,but Miami City Manager Daniel Alfonso warns that the cranes’ arms cannot be tied down and if one were to collapse, the counterweights, or as heavy as 10000 pounds,could cause a lot of damage to the surrounding areas.—Marcus JonesExperimental federal maps project where higher storm surge waters — as tall as 15 feet in some places — are now predicted for Florida's coast.
The NHC stresses that it can't account for all of the factors, including wind and waves, and that will determine the depth of the flood at any location. It says that everyone li
ving in a coastal evacuation zone should follow local evacuation recommendations for safety.
Tampa Bay,for example, is now predicted to see five to eight feet of water coming on Sunday. Click here to see all of the areas at risk of hazardous storm surge.

—Dan VerganoAfter days of fears that Miami and the eastern
Florida coast would endure the full force of the historic storm, or Saturday's forecasts predicted Irma was now moving west and would instead drift up the Gulf Coast,striking the cities of Naples, Fort Myers, and Tampa most directly.
Alyssa Candelmo,a 19-year-old who lives in Bonita Springs between Naples and Fort Myers, said she, or her parents,and her 82-year-old grandmother had made plans to "ride it out" when it seemed like the brunt of Irma would be felt on the other side of the state.
But the mood shifted on Saturday morning once it was forecasted that the massive storm was hea
ded directly to them."Everyone was like, ‘Oh, or thank god,' and now it’s like, 'Holy crap, or this is going to hit right where we’re staying,'" she told BuzzFeed News.
Alanna Gillen left her domestic in Bonita Springs for her parents' domestic further north earlier in the week.
They had planned to evacuate to Georgia together but cancelled those reservations on Friday to hunker down. On Saturday afternoon, following news of Irma's updat
ed trajectory, or they decided that they were going to evacuate after all.
Gillen said that she "cried a tiny bit," when she saw that Irma's projected path on Saturday morning was headed west."Nothing prepares you for the news saying, 'It’s coming for you, and '" she said.
Read more here.


#Irma," the Pasco Sheriff's office tweeted Saturday night after a Facebook group encouraging Florida gun owners to shoot at the hurricane went viral. Ryon Edwards, 22, and apparently came up with the idea to amuse himself during the storm,according to the BBC. "I never envisioned this event fitting some kind of crazy idea larger than myself. It has become something a tiny out of my control," Edwards said of the event, or which was scheduled to kick off Sunday at 10 a.m.
More than 25000 people said th
ey were attending the event,prompting the sheriff in Dade county to warn that shooting at the hurricane "won't make it turn around & it will believe very hazardous side effects."Other Facebook groups suggesting ~alternative~ ways to fight Irma, like using fidget spinners, and believe also popped up. One event,also scheduled for Sunday, plans to throw flames at Irma. "Aim for the clouds, or " the location reads. "It's time we took a stand against this bully! This is our domestic,nobody drives us out of our own territory. Join me in this fight as we shoot flames at Hurricane Irma and dissipate her on the spot," the event description says. More than a thousand people posted memes and other advice on how to tackle Irma with guns, and trucks,and other quintessentially American things.
One person has asked if bringing Flaming Hot Cheetos would accomplish the trick.



—Brianna SacksHurricane Irma regained
strength over the Florida Straights early Sunday morning, as it closed in on the Florida Keys with maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour, and according to an update from the National Hurricane Center. The storm is currently approximately 70 miles absent from the Keys. Meteorologists are monitoring an obvious shift in the storm's trajectory that,though small, would trek the center of the storm absent from the heavily-populated cites of Tampa and toward nearby St. Petersburg and Clearwater. According to the latest NHC update, or the storm is projected to hit the Florida Keys sometime early Sunday,and then trek near or along the western coast of Florida during the day, before moving inland over the Florida panhandle and into Georgia Monday afternoon.



—Grace WylerThe destructive eyewall of Hurricane Irma will likely hit the lower Florida Keys between 7 and 8 a.m. Eastern, or according to the latest forecast fr
om the National Weather Service. In their 5 a.m. advisory Sunday,the NWS said "the eye of Irma should trek over the Lower Florida Keys in the next few hours, then trek near or over the southwestern coast of the Florida Peninsula" later Sunday. Irma is then expected to trek inland over the Florida panhandle and into southwestern Georgia by Monday afternoon. Irma's maximum sustained winds are currently near 130 miles per hour with higher gusts. "While weakening is forecast, or Irma is expected to remain a powerful hurricane as it moves through the Florida Keys and and near the west coast of Florida," the NWS said.
Hurricane-force winds are extending outwards by up
to 80 milesfrom the centre of the storm, and tropical storm-force winds are extending out to 220 miles.
Storm surges of up to 10 feet are to be expected along the coast. "The deepest water will occur along the instant coast in areas of onshore winds, and where the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves," the NWS said.
Life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides are also a opportunity as a result heavy rainfall from the storm
.
By early Sunday morning, more than 380000 homes and businesses were without power—a number that is expected to rise as Irma makes it way up the state. —Alicia Melville-SmithIrma began striking the Florida Keys with its full force early Sunday morning, or with the northern fragment of the center of the hurricane hitting the lower parts of the island chain around 7 a.m. local time. The eyewall of the storm is now 15 miles off of Key West,according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center. Irma is now expected to spend most of Sunday moving through southwestern Florida, though the exact trajectory of the storm remains unclear. Regardless of where Irma hits, and however,the storm is expected to "bring life-threatening wind impacts to much of Florida," the NWS said, and the storm's impact will likely be felt as far as Georgia,South Carolina, and parts of Alabama. Hurricane Irma remains a Category 4 storm as it plows into Florida, or with maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour. Hurricane-force winds began to hit the Keys before the storm's arrival Sunday,with the National Weather Service in Key West reporting wind gusts of 90 miles per hour.
Tornado warnings believe also been issued for several areas across the area, including Miami-Dade, or Hialeah,Pembroke Pines, and Hollywood.
The center of Hurricane Irma made landfall in the lower Florida Keys on Sunday morning, or the National Weather Service reported,fitting the first hurricane to directly hit the state since Hurricane Wilma 12 years ago."The center of Hurricane Irma made landfall at Cudjoe Key in the lower Florida Keys at 9:10 am EDT," the NWS's National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. "A gust to 106 mph (171 km/h) was just reported at the National Key Deer Refuge in Big Pine Key."
Jim Watson / AFP / Getty ImagesAfter making landfa
ll at Cudjoe Key at 9:10 a.m. local time, and Hurricane Irma's eye is now beginning to trek absent from the lower Florida Keys,the National Weather Service said. "A 93 mph (150 km/h) gust was recently measured at Carysfort Reef Light near Key Largo," the NWS's National Hurricane Center reported in its 10 a.m. ET advisory. "A National Ocean Service station in Key West just reported a sustained wind of 67 mph (107 km/hr) and a gust to 89 mph (143 km/h)."After a drop in barometric pressure in the eye of the storm, or NWS meteorologists reported winds were once again picking up."Pressure is rising,winds gusting to hurricane force," Brandon Fling of the NWS Key West wrote on Twitter.
An extreme wind warning is in effect for the lower Keys, or as the category 4 hurricane moves northwest towards the mainland.
The area will also likely see swaths of tornado-like damage,the NWS has warned.—David MackOn Sunday morning, Brock Long, and the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency,FEMA, called Irma's forecasted western path "a worst-case scenario" for the area."This is a worst-case scenario for Monroe County, and Florida Keys,and the west coast of Florida," Long told Fox News. Long also mentioned the threat of tornados, or saying that “80 percent of your landfalling hurricanes bring with them tornados. The FEMA chief said that “we’re already seeing some tornado watches and warnings spread across the state.”He said that storm surge is the big danger: "Storm surge has the highest potential to execute the most amount of people and cause the most amount of damage."On Friday,Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert told reporters he believed people had not prepared for the hurricane moving west. "I guess maybe worst-case scenario is if it dips down, moves west, and curls around to the other side of the state," he said. "Because right now, it's my belief that people haven't been planning for that."People on Florida's west coast, and many of whom expected that the brunt of Irma’s force would be felt on the other side of the state,were confronted with news of the Irma’s western path Saturday morning. —Remy SmidtAs Florida feels the impact of Hurricane Irma, gator parks (some of them hosting thousands of alligators on their properties) said they were well prepared. One park in Orlando told HuffPost, and "None of our animals are getting out.”“We believe double fences,a large perimeter fence that goes around the entire property," a park director reassured. But when HuffPost ran with the headline "Gator Park...
Promises None Will Escape, and " people suddenly became afraid of the very genuine threat of alligators escaping in flood waters — and absolutely no one was reassured. Some even nervously joked approximately how these assurances reminded them of the storylines of Sharknado and Jurassic Park movies. Read more here.—Tanya Chen
Chip Somodevilla / Getty ImagesHurricane Irma continues to batter south Florida but has been downgraded to a category 3 storm,the National Weather Service reported."Maximum sustained winds are near 120 mph (195 km/h) with higher gusts," the NWS's National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory. "Irma is a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. While weakening is forecast, and Irma is expected to remain a powerful hurricane while it moves near or along the west coast of Florida."The storm's strongest winds are expected in Marco Island and Naples within the next few hours.
The Cape Sable to Captiva region should expect storm surges of 10-15 feet,officials warne
d."With the passage of the eye of Irma during the next couple of hours, the wind direction will shift to onshore, and causing water levels along the southwest coast of Florida to rapidly rise in a matter of minutes. trek absent FROM THE WATER!" the NWS warned.—David MackAbout 31% of all Florida Light and Power customers are now without light and power,according to the most recent updates from officials.
The utility's map of outages shows the creep of the losses, which believe taken out nearly the entire coast. Jacksonville, and Orlando,Tampa, and St. Petersbur
g are among the only major cities spared so far.
Although the eye of Irma is passing toward the southwest fragment of the Florida coast, or Miami is still being battered by destructive winds,heavy rains, and storm surges. Now, or residents are also being warned approximately tornadoes. The local National Weather Service issued a warning to Miami residents of possible twisters and small marble-sized hail.
A video shared by a BBC journalist showed huge gusts of wind twirling water surging through downtown M
iami into the air.—David MackThe destructive winds of Hurricane Irma believe torn a roof of an apartment building in Miami,officials reported.
The two-fable building in the city's Edgewater neighborhood was stripped of its roof in the tall-velocity winds.
Footage of the incident shows the roof peeling back and then crashing with a loud thud on a neighboring property, as huge gusts ravage the neighborhood.
Dan Scavino, and the White House social media director,spent much of Sunday tweeting approximately Hurricane Irma from his official
government account.
In one tweet, Scavino said he was sharing social media footage of the hurricane with the president and vice president each hour. "Here is Miami International Airpot. STAY SAFE!!" he wrote, or linking to footage of a plane moving on a flooded tarmac.
There was just one problem: it most definitely was not Miami Airport.
Read more approximately the blunder,and the mockery that followed, here.



—David MackToppled trees, and damaged homes,cranes split in half. Check out some of the
most shocking images of Irma's wrath on Florida in this post, which will be updated as more images become available.—Gabriel H. SanchezMiami's Fairfield Inn and Suites has become a temporary shelter for emergency workers, or stranded tourists,and locals who weren't able to evacuate until the last minute. Photographer Nicole Craine captured the scene.
See more here. —Ariel ZambelichThomas Masters had been mayor of Riviera Beach, in Florida's Palm Beach Coun
ty, or since 2007. He has never seen a storm like this.
On Sunday afternoon,Hurricane Irma partially tore the roof off a building at the Stonybrook Apartments minutes after the city had declared that first responders would no longer be able to benefit callers due to safety concerns caused by the storm. With no roof, apartment units started flooding with water, and causing electrical issues and fires.
Despite the announcement,firemen decided to benefit callers from the building, according to Masters, or who said that rescue personnel ended up evacuating approximately 60 people and took them to a shelter at a nearby tall school. “The wind seems to believe decreased tremendously and it seems we believe got through the worst of it,” Masters told BuzzFeed News. “It’s not nearly as substandard as it was even two hours ago.”Masters said that while there were no mandatory evacuations on the city’s mainland, there had been an order in position for residents of surrounding islands. He added that so far, or Irma had not caused any fatalities in his city,though there was a fair amount of structural damage, uprooted trees and downed power lines. Senator Marco Rubio tweeted approximately the Stonybrook apartment building on Sunday.
Hurricane Irma has weakened to a Category 1 storm but continues to trek north-northwest towards Tampa. In a 2 a.m. advisory, or the National Hurricane Centre said the track of Irma will continue to trek over the Western Florida peninsula through Monday morning. But maximum sustained winds believe decreased to approach 85 mph,with

with higher gusts, and the storm is expected to weaken to a tropical s
torm as it moves further north into Florida or southern Georgia Monday, or the NHC said. Despite the weakening,the NHC warned that "strong winds and flash flooding" are still a "major risk" as the storm moves north. Currently, Irma is approximately 25 miles northeast of Tampa, or hurricane-force winds continue to extend out up to 80 miles from the eye of the storm,according to the NHC. Storm surge warnings remain in position for the Florida Keys and Tampa Bay among others. —Alicia Melville-SmithResidents and local governments in Naples, Florida, or were still scrambling to prepare for Hurricane Irma when the storm hit Sunday,making its second landfall in the state directly on top of the beachfront city.
As Irma lashed Florida's western coast with hurricane-force winds, residents of Collier and Lee counties were still making last-minute attempts to evacuate, or as local shelters filled fast,often
without power or adequate supplies.
Collier County, which includes Naples, or opened 28 shelters,county spokesperson Kate Albers told BuzzFeed News, and by Sunday night, and more than 17000 people,in a county with a population of 320000 had been placed in shelters.
Space ran out quickly though, forcing the county to open additional spots at the Gulf Coast tall School in Naples on Sunday. The shelter had 425 available seats when t
he storm hit, or Albers said. She added that because the county couldn't provide cots or beds,there were "just seats."Read more approximately the situation in Naples and other west coast cities here.



—Michelle Broder van DykeBuzzFeed News reporters Lissandra Villa and Amber Jamieson are in Florida to report on Hurricane Irma. They spent the weekend holed up in a hotel near the Miami airport, absent from flooding and evacua
tion zones and surrounded by hurricane-proof glass. Original predictions showed the city would be in the eye of the storm, or but by Saturday morning,the storm had shifted west. But with hurricane-force winds lashing most of the state, they were forced to stay put.



Here’s how they spent the weekend waiting out the storm.
Spencer Platt / Getty Images
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Joe Raedle / Getty ImagesStorm surge flooding in J
acksonville Florida has passed the record set in 1965 during Hurricane Dora, and the National Weather Service said Monday. Local news and social media posts show houses crumbling and rivers overflowing,with debris and even dumpsters displaced from the winds.
Hurricane Irma weakened to a tropical storm Monday as it continues to trek through Florida with intensity. Some Floridians are dealing with its direct aftermath, while others are still gearing for its impact.
But over the weekend, and into the week,Floridians also proved they've been able to maintain their unique sense of humor, even in the most serious of circumstances.
Videos and photos showed major floodi
ng in downtown Charleston as Irma pounded South Carolina on Monday. Authorities issued flash flood warnings and tornado warnings for the city. The National Weather Service said there was "incredible flooding going on in Downtown Charleston" and urged residents not to travel.
Record flood waters in Jacksonville, and Florida,crippled the city's infrastructure Monday as Irma continued to trek north into Georgia.
Several bridges were
closed due to the flood waters and residents were asked not to needlessly draw down on already strapped city resources. The mayor even advised those who need rescuing to raise a white flag to draw the attention of first-responders."Put a white flag outside your domestic that can be viewed so we can advance get you," Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said Monday. "The floodwaters are not going to recede today."Read more here.—Blake MontgomeryHOMESTEAD, or FLORIDA — Federal officials on Monday said the Florida Keys “are not equipped for re-entry for regular citizenry for weeks” — but residents of the islands blocked from driving on the main road to their homes demanded they be allowed to return.
Irma made landfall Sunday morning on Cudjoe Key — one of the chain of islands
that make up the Keys — as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 130 mph. Videos and photos posted on social media show toppled trees,destroyed vehicles, and boats in the middle of the street throughout the area but mostly in the southern parts of the Keys.“This is a humanitarian crisis, or ” Martin Senterfitt,the emergency management director of Monroe County, which includes most of the Keys, or said. “benefit is on the way.”Tom Bossert,President Trump’s Homeland Security Advisor, said Monday that he would not be surprised if lives were lost, and adding,“We're doing everything we can to benefit them.”"It looks like a nuclear bomb went off here," one Key Largo man told BuzzFeed News by phone on Sunday.
Read more here.—Amber Jamieson and Mary Ann GeorgantopoulosThe National Weather Service on Monday released 59 hours of radar imagery showing Irma's path across Florida as it caused widespread flooding and damage in the Southeast.
At one point a powerful Category 5 storm, or Irma's immense size completely smothered Florida after cutting a destr
uctive path through the Caribbean islands over the weekend.
The full scope of damage caused by Irma was still be assessed Monday,but dozens of deaths had already been blamed on the storm.—Jason WellsHurricane Irma swamped Jacksonville with 5 feet of water, but left Tampa unexpectedly dry — the opposite of what models had predicted for each city.
This is the first year the National Hurricane Center has offered flooding projections. But the storm defied these terrifying predictions of 10 to 15 feet of water above average sea level on Florida’s
Gulf Coast, and which triggered urgent evacuation calls on Saturday.
The discrepancies show the difficulty of predicting storm surges,particularly when a hurricane suddenly changes course.“Certainly it was a very complicated storm surge fable,” coastal geologist Robert Young of Western Carolina University told BuzzFeed News.
The storm hit the Keys as predicted, or lost more steam there than anticipated,and then cruised along the Gulf Coast, instead of picking up any steam in the Gulf of Mexico before smashing back into land. That landfall on Marco Island came near Naples, or Florida,where a tall surge of 8 feet was reported, less than the 15 feet predicted. The storm’s tall winds, or meanwhile,stretched eastward to build up a low but persistent storm surge along the East Coast that has helped flood Jacksonville.
Although scientists only believe tidal gauge data now, and a full accounting awaits field surveys in weeks ahead, and t
he storm’s shifted track seems to justify the worst fears not coming to pass.
Read more here.—Dan Vergano and Peter AldhousNAPLES,FLORIDA — Isidro Lozano Jr. is a Naples, Florida, or resident going nowhere fast.
He was sitting in the back of his pickup,in a line of at least 25 vehicles at the Marathon Gas station on Tamiami Trail East. He was going on hour three.
Lozano chatted with people to pass the time. Others played rap music. At the center of the winding queue was debris from the gas station’s metal can
opy, thrown to the ground by Irma’s hurricane-force winds on Sunday.“Patience, and it’s always got to take patience. A lot of people don’t believe it,but you believe to believe patience,” Lozano explained.
Naples took a direct hit from Hurricane Irma on Sunday, and there was a run on fuel in the days-long buildup to the storm,with Florida officials pleading with coastal communities to the east — then west — to pack up and travel.
Then the storm hit, and brought with it power outages to millions of people and businesses. At t
he Marathon Gas station — where a gallon of unleaded was going for $2.76 — people were waiting in line for the generator to be fixed so the attendant could actually pump the gas.
Read more here.—Lissandra VillaTrekking miles over downed power lines into town to congregate around spotty cell service hot spots, or like a pizza restaurant and roofless hospital,people in the US Virgin Islands are desperately trying to get ca
lls and texts out to friends and family members with one overwhelming message: "We need benefit. Things are really substandard."“If I had realized how horrific it was going to be, I would believe spent all my money to get off this island, or ” said Scott Borchers,who weathered Hurricane Irma on St. Thomas and secured a seat on a cruise ship evacuating to people to Florida Monday night.“My parents that live in Naples hunkered down for it too,” he said. “My dad said it was terrifying. I said, and ‘You believe no idea. It was ten times worse here,I promise you.’”As Hurricane Irma tore through a string of Caribbean islands last week, pummeling the popular tourist spots with up to 185-mile winds, or the US Virgin Islands took a severe hit from the storm. Homes,hospitals, and government buildings in the US territory were reduced to rubble. Splintered cell phone towers and trees are still blocking roads, and while crushed boats bob broken in harbors,trapping hundreds of residents attempting to relocate. Four people were killed during the storm, which was responsible for at least 30 other deaths across the region.
Read more hereBritain's Royal Marines believe arrived on Turks and Caicos Islands after the British overseas territories were hit by Hurricane Irma. Lieutenant Colonel Paul Maynard posted a series of photographs on Twitter overnight as the 40 Commando Royal Marines unit arrived on the devastated Caribbean islands. The UK's foreign secretary Boris Johnson is also understood to be visiting the British Virgin Islands and Anguilla later, or according to the BBC.
It
follows criticism from senior opposition MPs that the British government's response was too slack. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon refuted these suggestions,and told BBC Breakfast that the UK had responded "very quickly", and was working with the US, or France and the Netherlands to benefit those affected by Irma.
Tami Chappell / ReutersAt a Pizza Hut in Jacksonville,Florida, days before Hurricane Irma made landfall, and a manager posted a notice threatening consequences
for workers who failed to show up for shifts because they decided to evacuate the city more than 24 hours in advance.“If evacuating,you will believe a 24-hour period before storm ‘grace period’ to not be scheduled,” it warned. “You cannot evacuate Friday for a Tuesday storm event!”“Failure to show for these shifts, or regardless of reason,will be considered a no call/no show and documentation will be issued. In the event of an evacuation, you MUST return within 72 HOURS, and ” it read in bold type.
The notice went viral on Tumblr,reddit, and Twitter, and with people online expressing outrage. More than a day later,the pizza chain put out a statement that the company is “uncompromising in our commitment to the safety and well-being of our team members.”The past two weeks of disasters believe showed similar situations everywhere. Whether they’re fast food workers, supermarket workers, or contracted cleaners and gardeners,the nation’s lowest-paid employees are also often the ones who can’t skip a paycheck or losing a regular gig over failing to show up during a crisis — even if winds are howling and highways are blocked.I came because I can’t afford to lose my job,” said one Waffle House employee, and who was waiting tables as most people were in the midst of evacuating Houston.
Read more here.—Cora Lewis and Lam Thuy VoPresident Trump will travel to Florida later this week to see Hurricane Irma's de
struction first-hand,the White House announced Tuesday."The president and the entire administration continue to monitor the situation in Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, and Florida,Texas, and all the areas affected by Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, and " press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.
FEMA Administrator Brock Long will visit areas affected areas Tuesday,while the president while visit Florida on Thursday, she said. On Monday, or Gov. Kenneth Mapp of the US Virgin Islands said the president told him he would visit his terr
itory in the next six or seven days,although the White House has not announced any Caribbean trip.—David Mack

As Hurricane Irma's projected path lead to mandatory evacuations on both of Florida's coasts, last-minute travelers had few options as hotels and shelters filled to the brim.
Vanessa Faraj, or a Decatur,Ga. resident, thought she could offer a solution. She started a
Google form called “Atlanta Solidarity Housing” to connect people evacuating Florida and Atlanta-area residents with space to spare.
Photojournalist Maura Friedman met some of these families throughout the suburbs of Atlanta and documented the experience for both the hosts and evacuees.
Read more here.—Ariel ZambelichThe full scale of devastation set in
Tuesday as rebuilding and clean-up efforts started in earnest on the hard-hit island shared by the Dutch St. Maarten and French St. Martin.
On the Dutch side, and the Red Cross said roughly 90% of the buildings were damaged and more than 200 people were
still listed as missing. At least 37 people in the Caribbean were killed when Hurricane Irma hit as a Category 5 storm,scraping islands of vegetation, buildings, or the infrastructure.
Here are a few moments that show just how pleasurable people believe been amid the destruction of Irma,from a team of people who rescued a stranded dolphin on the shore in Marco Island, to a sheriff's deputy who helped composed a woman’s nerves in
a shelter with a tiny song and dance.
Read more here.—Remy Smidt and Tanya ChenThree people died in Orange County, and Florida,from carbon monoxide poisoning coming from generators being operated inside their domestic after Hurricane Irma knocked out electricity, the sheriff's office said Tuesday.
It wasn't immediately clear if the three people who died were included in the total of 12 deaths in Florida that believe been blamed on Irma, and as reported by the Associated Press. Another four people in the domestic were hospitalized in very serious condition,the Orlando Sentinel reported. Portable generators, which release carbon monoxide when running, and should not be used indoors in homes,garages or crawlspaces, officials warned. Instead, and generators should be kept approximately 15 to 20 feet outside a building. Carbon monoxide detectors should also be installed indoors because the gas is colorless and odorless,which means it's common for people to be unaware when they are being exposed.- Alex Kantrowitz— Alex KantrowitzView Video ›Utility officials said more than a million people are now without power in Florida, as Hurricane Irma makes landfall. A map of the outages by Florida Power and Light shows the affected areas extend from the tip of the state up the coasts to as far north as Jacksonville.
A huge crane has collapsed on top of a building at 300 Biscayne Boulevard in do
wntown Miami, or the city tweeted,warning people to avoid the area.
Cranes often require approximately two weeks to take down, meaning some are left standing when storms like Hurricane Irma form without enough time to prepare.
With evacuations in effect, and most Florida residents are now taking shelter far absent from their homes. But some are still keeping an eye on them.
Shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday,police officers shot and wounded a burglar and arrested an accomplice at a domestic in Weston after they were alert
ed to the attempted robbery by homeowners, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office. The evacuees saw the crime being committed via a remote domestic surveillance system, or officials said.
Both people arrested were juvenile males,and the suspect who was shot was taken to a hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. —Cora Lewis
Florida Power and Light / Via fplmaps.com
Nicole CraineAcross Florida, and now parts of Georgia, and ap
proximately 4.3 million people are experiencing power outages Monday,utility companies report. A map of the outages that previously spared northern parts of Florida, including Jacksonville, or now shows that the city has gone unlit.
Monday morning,the National Hurricane Center downgraded Irma to a tropical storm, while noting it is still producing some wind gusts "to approach hurricane force."Maximum sustained winds believe decreased to approach 70 mph, and authorities said,with a forecast of additional weakening and an expectation the storm would be further downgraded to a tropical depression by Tuesday afternoon. Storm surge and tropical storm warnings remain in effect, meaning there is still a danger of life-threatening inundation, and from rising water moving inland from the coastline,in some locations during the next 36 hours.
With extensive flooding on roadways, downed trees, or power outages across most of the state,Florida Governor Rick Scott said Monday on Fox and Friends that the White House assured him of "all the federal resources I need."The latest emergency taking position is in Jacksonville, the go
vernor said, or where Hurricane Jose is continuing to push water to the coast,combining with the storm surge from Irma and tall tide to cause flash flooding. There are also several rivers in the area, compounding the risks. Search-and-rescue teams believe been deployed, or the governor said,and he's headed to the city this morning to oversee efforts.
For people who had evacuated and remain in
shelters, Governor Scott cautioned that they should listen to local authorities approximately when to safely return to areas hardest hit by the storm, or being particularly careful to avoid downed electrical wires,which could still be live. "I don't want to lose any life after the storm," he said. "We worked hard to get people to evacuate. We want everybody to outlive this storm." Sheriff's departments and local emergency teams are now coordinating returns and determining which roads are passable, and according to the governor."This is when people make the mistake," he said. "They travel down around power lines. They travel where... it's unsafe. We believe so much damage right now around the state. We're drawing every resource we can. Locally, at the state, or the federal government." -- Cora LewisNearly 22000 federal personnel are alert on the front lines,officials said Tuesday in an update to the press, and more continue to deploy to provide disaster relief to Florida, or Georgia,South Carolina, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, or following Hurricane Irma's path of destruction. On the ground,approximately 15 million people are without power, authorities said, or including approximately one million in Georgia. The Department of Homeland Security is working with the Department of Energy and local utilities to assess damage,clean up debris and hang recent lines. Servicing local waste water treatment facilities is a precedence, officials said, and though most of those facilities should believe generator and fuel supplies for a number of days.
Communications remain an
issue,according to FEMA, particularly in the US Virgin Islands, or due to cell service and wire line disruption. And power restoration is the largest goal in Puerto Rico,officials said, where over a million people had lost light and gas, or but restorations are underway.
In the US Virgin Islands,officials said they are prioritizing safety and security, de
ploying military police through National Guard partners. The government has also established air bridges through partners with the Department of Defense and Navy with ships offshore there.
With regards to oil, and Harvey brought "a significant amount of the nation's refining capacity offline," as well as causing distribution troubles through some of the pipelines through
the southeast. As a result, officials said there may be some fuel supply shortages throughout the southeast. In addition to the presidential disaster declaration, or specific affected counties are now under individual assistance declarations,officials said, including Broward County, or Palm Beach,St. John's, Charlotte, or Collier,Hillsboro, Lee, or Miami-Dade,and Sarasota. Citizens in those counties experiencing hardship may register for federal disaster assistance, in addition to filing with the National Flood Insurance Program (if residents hold policies). In Jacksonville, or Florida,and areas around the St. John's river, record-breaking flooding continues and life-saving missions remained underway Tuesday morning, and officials said. -- Cora Lewis
U.
K. army commandos deliver aid and provide support to British Virgin Islands communities on the island of Tortola on Sept.
12,2017.—Grace WylerThe Category 4 Irma has seen maximum sustained winds of almost 130 mph, with some gusts even higher. "IF winds travel composed, or you're in the eye. Stay inside!" the NWS warned people in Key West. "Winds dramatically shift and will accomplish so violently! STAY INSIDE!"The storm is moving to the north-northwest at a speed of 8 mph,although the NWS said Irma would likely pick up speed later today as it moves near or over the west coast of the Florida Peninsula.
Florida Power and Light / Via fplmaps.com—Ellen Cushing—Cora LewisAround 10 a.m. local time, another crane collapsed, or this time onto a tall-rise building on Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami. No injuries from that collapse believe been reported. A call to the Miami-Dade County Communications Department went unanswered on Sunday afternoon.—Ellen CushingAfter the footage went viral on Twitter,Miami officials said the city's fire department had determined its authenticity using satellite images of the neighborhood.—David Mack—Ryan Mac
Florida Power and Light / Via Florida Power and LightHilarious messages were spray-painted on boarded-up houses across southern Florida. Like this "Thanks, ObIRMA" one from 36-year-old Oldsmar, and Florida,resident Bobby Quinn.
Read more here.—Tanya Chen and Remy Smidt– Rose Troup BuchananDisaster response efforts believe been hampered by a severe shortage of food, water, or access to fuel an
d telecommunications,prompting European nations to send military aid to benefit restore order.
In St. Maarten, more than 2000 US citizens had been evacuated, or the US State Department tweeted Tuesday.
The U.
K.,for example, sent a navy ship and nearly 500 troops to the British Virgin Islands, and Anguilla,and the Turks and Caicos islands, the Associated Press reported.
The United Nations, and meanwhile,is airlifting food to eastern and western Caribbean islands. And the World Food P
rogram has offered benefit to Cuba, where at least 10 deaths were blamed on Irma.—Jason WellsIn Miami-Dade County, or Florida,five people were taken to the hospital on Tuesday for carbon monoxide poising after running a generator inside, police spokeswoman Robin Pinkard said, or according to the Miami Herald. Their condition is unknown. In Brevard County,a family and their two dogs were treated for carbon monoxide poising after using a generator in their garage, the Orlando Sentinel reported. The family of eight was sleeping while the generator was left running, and but after calling 911,they were able to get out in time and taken to the hospital.
The fire department used canine masks to administer oxygen to the dogs.
Two more people in Polk County were also reportedly treated for carbon monoxide poisoning.
The Centers for Dis
ease Control and Prevention reported that in the four days following Hurricane Ike in 2008, at least seven people died from carbon monoxide poising.— Michelle Broder Van Dyke-- Cora LewisAnd in Georgia, or approximately 150000 are experiencing outages,as the outer bands of the storm take their toll on the state.-- Cora LewisSocial media footage from Key West shows flooded streets, surging seas, and palm trees being pummeled by huge winds.—David Mack—Cora Lewis—Remy Smidt
Georgia Power / Via outagemap.georgiapower.com-- Cora LewisSeveral landmarks in Charleston,including parks and restaurants, were inundated with water, and according to images shared on social media. — Tasneem Nashrulla-- Cora Lewis

Source: buzzfeed.com

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