Flee now, Floridians are told

5.6 million people get order to go as Irma strengthens

Lilimar Garcia loads sandbags in her vehicle Friday in Orlando, Fla., ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Irma. Lines stretched for miles and people waited several hours to get the sandbags.
Lilimar Garcia loads sandbags in her vehicle Friday in Orlando, Fla., ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Irma. Lines stretched for miles and people waited several hours to get the sandbags.

MIAMI -- As Hurricane Irma trained its sights on Florida, officials warned more than 5 million people Friday that time was running out and ordered them to evacuate ahead of the deadly hurricane as it followed a path that could take it from one end of the state to the other.

By Friday night, Irma had strengthened back into a Category 5 storm after weakening into a Category 4 earlier in the day. The hurricane, which had wind speeds of 160 mph, was about 300 miles from Miami and moving west at about 13 mph.

On its way to the U.S. mainland, where it is forecast to roar ashore Sunday morning near Key West, Irma killed at least 22 people in the Caribbean and left thousands of people homeless as it devastated small resort islands.

Forecasters adjusted the storm's potential track more toward the west coast of Florida, away from the Miami metropolitan area of 6 million people, meaning "a less costly, a less deadly storm," University of Miami researcher Brian McNoldy said.

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Photos by The Associated Press

Nevertheless, forecasters warned that its hurricane-force winds were so wide they could reach from coast to coast, testing the nation's third-largest state, which has undergone rapid development and more stringent hurricaneproof building codes over the past decade or so.

"This is a storm that will kill you if you don't get out of the way," National Hurricane Center meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said. "Everybody's going to feel this one."

In Florida, gas shortages and gridlock hindered the evacuations. Parts of interstates 75 and 95 northbound were bumper to bumper, while very few cars drove in the southbound lanes.

"We're getting out of this state," said Manny Zuniga, who left his home in Miami at midnight Thursday to avoid the gridlock. "Irma is going to take all of Florida."

[HURRICANE TRACKER: Follow Irma’s projected path]

Despite driving overnight, he still took 12 hours to reach Orlando -- a trip that normally takes four hours. From there, he and his wife, two children, two dogs and a ferret were headed to Arkansas.

In one of the country's largest evacuations, about 5.6 million people in Florida -- more than one-quarter of the state's population -- were ordered to evacuate, and another 540,000 were told to leave the Georgia coast. Authorities opened hundreds of shelters for people who did not leave. Hotels as far away as Atlanta filled up with evacuees.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott said people fleeing could drive slowly in the shoulder lane on highways. He wouldn't reverse the southbound lanes, he said, because they are needed to deliver gas and supplies.

"If you are planning to leave and do not leave tonight, you will have to ride out this extremely dangerous storm at your own risk," Scott said.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said he planned for enough space to hold 100,000 people before the storm arrives, although most shelters were only beginning to fill Friday.

Hurricane Andrew in 1992 revealed how lax building codes had become in the country's most storm-prone state, and Florida began requiring sturdier construction. Now, experts say, Irma could become the most serious test of Florida's storm-readiness.

When Andrew made landfall as a Category 5 storm Aug. 24 with winds topping 165 mph, its hurricane-force winds extended 45 miles from its center and its tropical-storm-force winds extended out 140 miles.

As of Friday afternoon, Irma had hurricane-force winds extending 70 miles from its center and tropical-storm-force winds extending 185 miles from the center.

Forecasters predicted a storm surge of 6 to 12 feet above ground-level along Florida's southwest coast and in the Keys. As much as a foot of rain could fall across the state, with isolated spots receiving 20 inches.

With winds that peaked at 185 mph, Irma was once the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the open Atlantic.

When asked at a news conference Friday about people in south Florida who intend to ride out the storm from their homes, Brock Long, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was blunt.

"I can guarantee you that I don't know anybody in Florida that's ever experienced what's about to hit south Florida," Long said.

Other states near the coast also made preparations.

Alabama declared a state of emergency, joining Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

South Carolina's governor ordered the evacuation of seven barrier islands, including Hilton Head Island, which is home to about 40,000 people and is known for its resorts and golf courses.

Gov. Henry McMaster said Friday that 4 to 6 feet of storm surge is possible on the islands in the southern part of the state even though the center of Irma is forecast to move 200 miles to the west.

A change in Irma's track back east might require more evacuations, McMaster said.

In Miami, about half a block from the shore of Biscayne Bay, Alberto Valdes would not leave. Despite protests from his neighbors -- including a broadcast reporter who covered the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew -- he said nothing would persuade him to leave his one-story home before Irma hits.

"How can you abandon your stuff?" Valdes, a 63-year-old New Jersey native, asked, gesturing to the home he has owned for 20 years. "You work so hard to have it, and then walk away? It's not an easy decision."

ISLANDS NOW FACE JOSE

In the Caribbean, thousands of Irma victims sought shelter or tried to escape their islands altogether Friday as Hurricane Jose, a Category 4 storm packing 150 mph winds, threatened to devastate the islands again this weekend.

Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the eastern part of Cuba reported no major casualties or damage inflicted by Irma by midafternoon, after Irma rolled north of the Caribbean's biggest islands.

But many residents and tourists farther east were left reeling after the storm ravaged some of the world's most exclusive tropical playgrounds, known for their turquoise waters and lush green vegetation. Among them: St. Martin, St. Barts, St. Thomas, Barbuda and Anguilla.

Irma smashed homes, shops, roads and schools; knocked out power, water and telephone service; trapped thousands of tourists; and stripped trees of their leaves, leaving a blasted-looking landscape littered with sheet metal and splintered lumber.

On Friday, looting and gunshots were reported on St. Martin, and a curfew was imposed in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Many of Irma's victims fled their islands on ferries and fishing boats for fear of Hurricane Jose.

"I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to know that further damage is imminent," said inspector Frankie Thomas of the police force of Antigua and Barbuda.

On Barbuda, a coral island rising just 125 feet above sea level, authorities ordered an evacuation of all 1,400 people to neighboring Antigua, where Stevet Jeremiah was reunited with one son and made plans to bury another.

Jeremiah, who sells lobster and crab to tourists, was huddled in her wooden home on Barbuda early Wednesday with her partner and their 2- and 4-year-old boys as Irma ripped open their metal roof and sent the ocean surging into the house.

Her younger son, Carl Junior Francis, was swept away. Neighbors found his body after sunrise.

"Two years old. He just turned 2, the 17th, last month. Just turned 2," she repeated. Her first task, she said, would be to organize his funeral. "That's all I can do. There is nothing else I can do."

The dead included 11 on St. Martin and St. Barts, four in the U.S. Virgin Islands, four in the British Virgin Islands and one each on Anguilla and Barbuda.

Also, a 16-year-old junior professional surfer drowned Tuesday in Barbados while surfing large swells generated by an approaching Irma.

'IT WAS VERY LOUD'

Hurricane Irma lashed the southern Bahamas on Friday with intense winds and rain, leaving a trail of downed trees and power lines, damaged roofs and scattered debris.

Mayaguana and Inagua were among the first Bahamian islands to feel the impact.

"It was very loud, you could hear the debris flying around crashing into buildings," said Marcus Sands, an assistant police superintendent in Abraham's Bay, Mayaguana's main settlement.

The eye of the storm was expected to move just north of Cuba and the central Bahamas for the rest of Friday and today, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Irma was predicted to dump 10 to 15 inches of rain on northern Cuba, with some areas seeing as much as 20 inches. The storm passed Baracoa, a town near Cuba's eastern tip, Friday morning, but wrought less havoc there than was expected. Cuban state media reported winds of about 90 mph and said waves towered over the city's breakwater, causing localized flooding.

On the islands already lashed by the hurricane, victims picked through the rubble of what had once been Caribbean dream getaway homes.

On St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, power lines and towers were toppled, a water and sewage treatment plant was heavily damaged, and the harbor was in ruins, along with hundreds of homes and dozens of businesses.

Opera singer Laura Strickling and her husband, Taylor, moved to St. Thomas three years ago from Washington so he could take a job as a lawyer. They rented a top-floor apartment with a stunning view of the turquoise water of Megan's Bay, which is surrounded by low hills covered by trees.

Strickling huddled with her husband and their 1-year-old daughter in a basement apartment along with another family as the storm raged for 12 hours.

Strickling, who used to visit her husband in Afghanistan when he worked there, added, "I've had to sit through a Taliban gunfight, and this was scarier."

When they emerged, they found their apartment was unscathed and the trees had no leaves.

"We're obviously worried by the thought of having to do it all again with Hurricane Jose. It's a little, a little, well, it's not good," she said, her words trailing off.

On St. Martin, which is divided between Dutch and French control, cafes and shops were swamped, and the storm left gnarled black branches denuded of leaves. Battered cars, corrugated metal, plywood, wrought iron and other debris covered street after street. Roofs were torn off numerous houses.

William Marlin, prime minister of the Dutch side of St. Martin, said recovery was expected to take months even before Jose threatened to make things worse.

"We've lost many, many homes. Schools have been destroyed," he said. "We foresee a loss of the tourist season because of the damage that was done to hotel properties, the negative publicity that one would have that it's better to go somewhere else because it's destroyed. So that will have a serious impact on our economy."

Information for this article was contributed by Curt Anderson, Claire Galofaro, Seth Borenstein, Gary Fineout, Terrance Harris, David Fischer, Anika Kentish, Michael Weissenstein, Ben Fox, Ian Brown, Danica Coto and Seth Borenstein of The Associated Press; by staff members of The New York Times; and by Leonard Shapiro, Patricia Sullivan, Luz Lazo and Mark Berman of The Washington Post.

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AP/GASTON DE CARDENAS

People swarm a Miami store Friday to get supplies and wood to secure their property.

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AP/MARTA LAVANDIER

Cira Delia Rodriguez and her husband, Jesus Mundia, wait for a bus Friday to take them out of Miami Beach.

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A map showing Irma's projected path.

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AP/DIEU NALIO CHERY

Lucita Leonce, 71, salvages what she can from her fooded home Friday in Fort-Liberte, Haiti, after Hurricane Irma’s rain and wind blew through.

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AP/The Tampa Bay Times/JIM DAMASKE

Brad Whistler (top) and Mike Judge work to secure Judge’s catamaran Friday at the Clearwater Beach Municipal Marina.

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AP/Orlando Sentinel/STEPHEN M. DOWELL

Evacuation traffic crawls Friday along the northbound lanes of Florida’s turnpike near Interstate 75 in Wildwood, Fla.

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Comparing Hurricane Irma with Hurricane Andrew.





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