Florida roads congested ahead of Hurricane Irma

“We have got to make sure people understand it is still risky”. After that, it lessened its intensity a bit came, ashore on Marco Island.

Irma was churning toward the heavily populated Tampa Bay region, a zone seen as particularly susceptible to storm surges due to its geographical position and sloping land off the coast. A family riding out the storm at the hotel told NBC 6 they are prepared for whatever Irma brings. Up to 8 inches of rain is expected locally. In fact, Jacksonville, Florida recorded their highest-ever storm surge flooding already. Residents should expect the brunt of wind, rain and storm surge effects between Sunday evening and Monday afternoon.

Earlier in the day, Irma executed a westward swing toward Florida’s Gulf coast that appeared to spare the Miami metropolitan area of the catastrophic direct hit that forecasters had been warning of for days. Then, there’s the lone model taking the storm through The Bahamas before making another Florida landfall.

The impacts of Irma will lessen as we get deeper into the week.

As Irma moves inland, more than 45 million people will face tropical storm conditions – meaning winds will top 39 miles per hour, Maue said. “You’re on your own until we can actually get in there”. And how bad is the damage? I will have lots of new information on this system and Irma beginning at 9 p.m. tonight on WBRC. People still took it very seriously. Despite the rising waters and whipping winds, many in Miami expressed relief as the path of the storm veered west. We saw a lot of trees down. Call 911 and FPL at 1-800-4-OUTAGE (1-800-468-8243) to report downed power lines or other unsafe or hazardous conditions involving FPL poles, wires or transformers.

Three quarters of the people in the county at one point had lost their power. Water reached the children’s vehicle seats by the time rescuers were able to get to them.

The latest from the National Weather Service has Hurricane Irma is now heading for Florida’s West Coast. The company has restored power to about 1 million customers so far but CEO Eric Silagy said Monday that “people need to be prepared for some prolonged and extended outages”.