Hurricane Irma barreled toward vulnerable Haiti yesterday after devastating a string of Caribbean islands and killing at least 10 people as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century took aim at Florida. With winds of around 290 km per hour, the storm has smashed through several small islands in the northeast Caribbean in recent days, including Barbuda, Saint Martin, and the British and US Virgin Islands, ripping down trees and flattening homes and hospitals.
According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) winds dipped slightly yesterday to 175 mph as the storm lashed the northern coast of the Dominican Republic but it remained an extremely dangerous Category 5 storm. Irma is expected to hit Florida as a very powerful Category 4 on Sunday, with storm surges and flooding beginning within the next 48 hours.
US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House yesterday after declaring a major disaster in the US Virgin Islands the amount of wind that is coming in, we don’t think we have seen anything quite like this.
Source: AIR