FLORIDA — (CNN) Monroe County, which includes the Florida Keys, says it is issuing a mandatory evacuation for visitors as a precaution ahead of Hurricane Irma, and an evacuation order for residents will follow. The visitors’ evacuation is “expected to begin at sunrise on Wednesday,” the county said in a news release. “We want all visitors in the Keys to leave the Keys,” county spokeswoman Cammy Clark said.
Hurricane Irma has strengthened into an “extremely dangerous” Category 5 storm, the National Hurricane Center said, threatening to slam into northeastern Caribbean islands and Puerto Rico by Wednesday before possibly taking aim at the US mainland.
Irma was churning Tuesday morning in the Atlantic about 270 miles east of Antigua and Barbuda, heading west with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph — well above the 157 mph threshold for a Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale — the hurricane center said.
The storm’s forecast track currently has it near or over Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Anguilla by late Tuesday or early Wednesday, and the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Wednesday afternoon.
“We could see storm surges of 7 to 11 feet — that’s certainly life-threatening — and very, very heavy flooding rainfall” in the far northeastern Caribbean islands as well winds that could cause catastrophic damage near the eye wall, the hurricane center’s Michael Brennan said.
Computer models show the system eventually heading near the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba on Friday into Saturday, and possibly turning north toward Florida by the weekend.
While Irma’s exact path is uncertain, several Caribbean islands as well Florida — where storm-wary shoppers were standing in long lines outside some stores Tuesday — are bracing for the storm.
After declaring a state of emergency across Florida, Gov. Rick Scott said President Donald Trump had “offered the full resources of the federal government as Floridians prepare for Hurricane Irma.”
“In Florida, we always prepare for the worst and hope for the best, and while the exact path of Irma is not absolutely known at this time, we cannot afford to not be prepared,” Scott said in a statement.
Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla and the Virgin Islands
Forecasters’ most immediate concerns are for the people of the northeastern Caribbean, Brennan said.
“Anguilla, all the way toward (Antigua and) Barbuda, all the way up even toward the British Virgin Islands (are) in grave danger of an eye wall hit at (at least) 150 mph — that devastates the island, no matter what island it is,” CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said Tuesday.
Those islands are under hurricane warnings as are Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Martin/St. Maarten, and St. Barts.
Hurricane warnings are issued to areas that are expected to experience hurricane-force winds (at least 74 mph).
On Antigua, home to roughly 80,000 people, fishermen used machines to lift their boats onto docks and other residents flocked to stores to stock up on food and other supplies ahead of the storm, video broadcast by ABS TV Antigua and distributed by Reuters shows.
The US Virgin Islands, home to about 100,000 people, declared a state of emergency Tuesday and ordered the National Guard into active service.
Puerto Rico
Hundreds of people rushed to the stores, emptying shelves of food and drinking water just as Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard on Monday.
For hours, people also lined up outside hardware stores hoping to get plywood, batteries and power generators. If Irma knocks out power, Puerto Ricans said they are worried it would take weeks or months before the power is restored.
“It (power) is something absolutely necessary, especially due to Puerto Rico’s weather. We need to have the A/C or a fan on all night,” a woman told CNN affiliate WAPA.
Last month, the director of Puerto Rico’s power utility, Ricardo Ramos RodrÃguez, said several factors have made the island’s electric system “vulnerable and fragile,” WAPA reported.
One of those factors is the shortage of employees. Many workers recently retired or left their jobs for better prospects on the US mainland, Ramos RodrÃguez said.
Public schools and officials at the University of Puerto Rico campuses have canceled classes, and many businesses are closed.
“Make a U-turn and die in the ocean, Irma. The Caribbean islands don’t need more problems!” Twitter user mujertropical wrote about the storm.
Florida: Stocking up on food, money
In Florida, people were standing in lines at stores to buy water and other goods Tuesday, though landfall there was uncertain.
In Miami, supermarkets are already selling out on water and nonperishable food. People are trying to beat the rush in case Irma makes landfall.
“I’ve been through hurricanes and they’re like ‘Oh it’s going to hit right here’ and then it hits 30, 40 miles up the coast and it kind of changes the way everything goes so better safe than sorry,” Greg Andrews told CNN affiliate WPLG.
Alex Batista of Miami told CNN that “the banks are full of people getting money.”
And in Clearwater, along Florida’s Gulf Coast, a Publix store still was selling six-packs of water but had run out of larger cases, Carrie Bowman said. Bowman told CNN that workers there were trying to calm shoppers.
On Twitter, she described a “mad run” on the remaining six-packs.
“@publix is out of cases. Expecting more tonight. Store 1300. They are doing their best people. Calm down,” she tweeted.
Irma could head to Florida by the weekend, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said Tuesday.
“Just tremendous damage if we get this storm, this big, over parts of Florida,” Myers said.
Why Irma could be especially intense
Irma is a classic “Cape Verde hurricane,” meaning it formed in the far eastern Atlantic, near the Cape Verde Islands (now known as the Cabo Verde Islands), before tracking all the way across the Atlantic, CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller said.
And Cape Verde storms frequently become some of the largest and most intense hurricanes. Examples include Hurricane Hugo, Hurricane Floyd and Hurricane Ivan.
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