Aircraft carrier, Navy ships headed to Florida Keys after Irma left ‘devastation’

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this”, CNN correspondent Sara Sidner said from Daytona Beach.

A flash flood emergency was issued for Charleston, South Carolina, late on Monday (11 September), as the hurricane tore down houses and cut off power supplies. In the Lower Key areas, just 10 miles east of Irma’s landfall, the brute force of 130 mph winds and almost 15 feet of storm surge easily destroyed Oceanside homes in Marathon and in Big Pine Key.

That’s because numerous islands are now inaccessible. “There’s no cell service”.

Officials were still trying to fully assess the situation in Florida early Monday, AP said.

In Florida, an estimated 13 million people remained without power, the AP said, and restoration could take weeks.

The storm has also been blamed for one death in Florida.

Set to turn into a tropical depression by Tuesday afternoon, Irma is expected to continue losing force as it moves further inland and approaches the Great Smoky Mountains beyond Atlanta.

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 13 (GOES-13) acquired data for the composite image above at 8:15 a.m. on September 10 as the storm was passing over the Florida Keys.

Hurricane Irma dissipated across the southeastern United States by Tuesday morning.

The television station also reported that the streets of Miami became raging rivers as floods rose, and the global airport suffered ‘major water damage’.

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face”, Mayor Bob Buckhorn of Tampa said at a Sunday news conference, paraphrasing the boxer Mike Tyson. More than 3.4 million homes in the state are without power, with parts of the city of Miami are under water.

“There is no water or little water, depending on where you are in the Keys”, Housley said on “Outnumbered” today.

Irma had affected all 35 counties within the company’s territory.

State government offices are closed, as are public schools and state college and universities.

Initially, it was a category 3 hurricane but soon it fluctuated to category 5 hurricane with 185 miles per hour (296 km/hr) intensity.

It killed at least 26 people before leaving the Caribbean for Florida. Expect 4-6 feet (1.2-1.8 meters) above normal high tide levels.