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Cuba lashed by category five winds as storm heads to US – as it happened

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 Updated 
Sat 9 Sep 2017 02.59 EDTFirst published on Thu 7 Sep 2017 09.29 EDT
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Hurricane Irma's path of destruction - video report

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What we know so far

Claire Phipps
Claire Phipps
  • Hurricane Irma, which briefly dipped to category four intensity, is now back up to category five and has made landfall in Cuba.
  • Irma is now forecast to hit the Florida Keys on Sunday morning, moving over south-west Florida by Sunday afternoon, then crossing the entire state over approximately 30 hours of ferocious winds and rains.
  • On Saturday, Irma continues to rake the north coast of Cuba, where it first hit the Camaguey archipelago on Friday night. It is the first category five storm to make landfall in Cuba for almost a century.
  • Saturday will also see tropical storm-force winds lash Florida, ahead of Irma’s arrival. Outer rain bands have already reached the peninsula.
  • Florida has ordered 5.6 million people – a quarter of the state’s population – to evacuate, warning that those who do not leave cannot expect rescue services to reach them once Irma hits. A curfew comes into effect in Palm Beach from 3pm on Saturday.
  • Florida governor Rick Scott warned on Friday:

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.

  • In Georgia, 540,000 people on the coast received mandatory evacuation orders.
  • The Bahamas meteorological office said the main island of New Providence had been spared the worst as Irma passed close by, but the southern Bahamas had been more badly hit.
  • At least 23 people have been confirmed killed in the Caribbean so far. The first victim of Irma was two-year-old Carl Junior Francis in Barbuda. Eleven died on French St Martin and St Barts, four in the US Virgin Islands, three on Puerto Rico, two on Dutch St Maarten and one in Anguilla. A teenage surfer died off Barbados in waves churned up by Irma, and four deaths were reported on the British Virgin Islands that have yet to be corroborated.
  • Clear-up efforts on Caribbean islands – to which Britain, France and the Netherlands have sent support – have been hampered by the approaching Hurricane Jose.
  • Jose is forecast to hit islands already ravaged by Irma – including Barbuda, Anguilla, St Maarten, St Martin and St Barthélemy – from Saturday. Hurricane Jose, currently a category four, is “almost category five”, the US National Hurricane Center has said.
  • But Katia – formerly a category one hurricane as it made landfall in Mexico – has been downgraded to a tropical storm.
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Cuba’s Meteorology Institute confirms the US National Hurricane Center verdict: Irma has made landfall there at category five intensity.

A report on its website reads:

Hurricane Irma is striking Camaguey and Ciego de Avila as a category five hurricane …

The Camaguey weather station recorded a 200kph (124mph) gust of wind from the northwest, causing the wind gauge to be destroyed.

In Cayo Coco a gust of 187km per hour [was recorded]; in Nuevitas a gust of 161km per hour and in Camaguey of 123km per hour.

Here is what the latest forecast says about Hurricane Irma’s predicted path:

Irma is moving toward the west near 12mph (19kph). A turn toward the northwest is expected by late today [Saturday].

On the forecast track, the centre of Irma will move near the north coast of Cuba today, near the Florida Keys Sunday morning, and then near the southwest coast of Florida Sunday afternoon.

The US National Hurricane Center says Jose remains a category four storm as it heads towards the Leeward Islands on Saturday.

But Katia – formerly a category one hurricane as it made landfall in Mexico – has been downgraded to a tropical storm.

Latest hurricane warnings

A 2am local time advisory from the US National Hurricane Center confirms that Irma is still moving directly over Cuba’s Camaguey archipelago and remains at category five.

Irma is currently 85 miles (135km) east-south-east of the Cuban northern city of Caibarién, and about 275 miles (440km) from Miami, with wind speeds of 160mph (260kph).

Hurricane warnings are in place for the following areas:

  • Cuban provinces of Camaguey, Ciego de Avila, Sancti Spiritus, Villa Clara, and Matanzas
  • North-western and central Bahamas and Ragged Island
  • Florida Keys
  • Lake Okeechobee
  • Florida Bay
  • Volusia/Brevard county line southward around the Florida peninsula to Anclote River

Basil Dean, from the Bahamas meteorology department in Nassau, says the effects of Irma in some parts of the Bahamas has not been as severe as was feared (the full force of the hurricane was instead felt in Cuba).

Dean told CNN:

Right now we’re having some light rains here in the capital … we don’t expect much more than we’re experiencing right now, even though we’re under a hurricane warning.

New Providence [the island where Nassau and most of the population are] is pretty much well to the east of the centre circulation and we anticipate the condition will be pretty much the same: occasional rain showers developing here and there.

But, he added, the island group did not escape unscathed:

Ragged Island would have been the last island in the Bahamas that would have experienced the hurricane-force winds.

In the south-east Bahamas, including the Turks and Caicos Islands, there’s been a major impact from Irma … The eye passed directly over Ragged Island.

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Dutch naval commander Peter Jan de Vin has shared images of relief efforts on Sint Maarten, which is administered by the Netherlands.

Dialysis patients were airlifted from the stricken island on Friday:

Geslaagde evacuatie dialyse patiënten uit Sint Maarten met Kustwacht Dash 8. Morgen volgt restant patiënten met Hercules C-130 @kon_marine. pic.twitter.com/K8MYRu3snQ

— Peter Jan de Vin (@C_ZMCARIB) September 9, 2017

Dutch troops dropped leaflets from helicopters warning residents of the approaching Hurricane Jose and advising them to move to shelters:

Flyers boven St Maarten vanuit heli ZEELAND om bevolking te waarschuwen voor orkaan José . Oproep om naar shelters te gaan.@kon_marine #irma pic.twitter.com/EvS5hLcLXK

— Peter Jan de Vin (@C_ZMCARIB) September 9, 2017

The evacuation ongoing in Florida and beyond is among the largest in US history.

In Florida, 5.6 million people – that’s more than one-quarter of the state’s population – have been ordered to leave,

In Georgia, 540,000 people on the coast received mandatory evacuation orders.

Florida governor Rick Scott warned on Friday:

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.

Officials said they would not risk sending rescue and emergency services personnel into the heart of the storm while it raged.

With Irma’s outer rain bands already brushing the Florida coast, Saturday morning is forecast to see the first tropical storm-force winds. They will build until Hurricane Irma arrives in its full intensity – forecast on Sunday morning in the Florida Keys.

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Martin Farrer
Martin Farrer

Hurricane Jose has moved closer to category five strength, with tops winds of 155mph (250kmh) as it heads towards the eastern Caribbean islands ravaged by Hurricane Irma.

Jose was about 265 miles (430km) east-south-east of the northern Leeward Islands early on Saturday and is forecast to hit the outlying Caribbean islands later in the day.

The US national hurricane centre said that “air force hurricane hunters find Jose even stronger … almost a category 5 hurricane”.

It issued hurricane warnings for the eastern Caribbean islands of Barbuda and Anguilla, Sint Maarten, St Martin and St Barthélemy. A hurricane watch was in effect for Antigua, while tropical storm watch was in effect for Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, British Virgin Islands, and St Thomas and St John.

Many of Irma’s victims have already fled their devastated islands on ferries and fishing boats for fear of Jose, which is currently ranked as a category four storm that could punish some places all over again this weekend.

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

When will Irma reach Florida?

These graphics from the US National Hurricane Center show first, the most likely arrival times of tropical storm-force winds (which will precede Irma’s full-strength landfall), and second, the earliest times such winds could arrive.

Although the hurricane itself is forecast to arrive on Sunday morning, Florida will be seeing extremely strong winds from Saturday morning, sweeping up through the state.

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Cuba – at just after midnight – is currently bearing the brunt of Irma, as it made landfall in the north of the country and returned to category five intensity.

Reuters reports:

The scenes along Cuba’s north central coast were gradually coming to resemble the horrors of those of other Caribbean islands over the last week as Irma barrelled in for a direct hit at Ciego de Avila province around midnight.

Choppy seas, grey skies, sheets of rain, bending palm trees, huge waves crashing over sea walls and downed power lines filled state-run television’s evening newscast.

Irma was forecast to bring dangerous storm surges of up to 10ft (3m) on parts of Cuba’s northern coast.

Meteorologists warned that by Saturday morning scenes of far greater devastation were sure to emerge as Irma worked her way along the northern coast westward through Sancti Spiritus and Villa Clara provinces.

The area is home to pristine keys with more than 50 hotels and fine beaches, vital money-makers for the cash-strapped government.

Residents in the central province of Camaguey hunkered down on Friday night. “There are really strong gusts of wind. It is pouring off and on, and the lights are out,” Anaida Gonzalez, a retired nurse, said by telephone.

Palm trees in Caibarién, Cuba, before Irma arrived. Photograph: Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters

Palm Beach county curfew

Florida’s Palm Beach county has said it will impose a curfew from 3pm Saturday, ahead of the arrival of tropical storm-force winds.

Officials do not want people out in the streets – or risk them needing rescue or emergency services – as Irma approaches. Those who have not evacuated are urged to seek safe shelter.

Timothy Harris, prime minister of St Kitts & Nevis, has warned that the approaching Hurricane Jose will affect the islands – but, as with Irma, they should escape its worst effects.

Senior meteorological officer Elmo Burke says outer rain bands from Jose will reach St Kitts & Nevis overnight and into Saturday, with its closest passing late afternoon on Saturday. Sunday, at least, will bring better weather conditions.

Florida governor Rick Scott has issued another plea for residents in evacuation zones – which cover 5.6 million people – to leave.

Scott says evacuation orders are also being issued further up the west coast of the state, given forecasts predicting that Irma could now track west.

And he warns that Floridians must be

prepared to locate to the closest available shelter within their counties if they do not evacuate by noon tomorrow [Saturday].

There are currently no shelters on the vulnerable Florida Keys, whose residents have been told to go.

But officials said on Friday they would open four “shelters of last resort” on Saturday at 7pm for those who had not evacuated.

No services will be available at those shelters, as most officials will have left the Keys.

Hurricane Katia makes landfall in Mexico

With Irma returning to category five, and Jose close to it, a third hurricane has just made landfall – though with thankfully lesser intensity.

Hurricane Katia, which is category one, has just made landfall in Mexico, north of Tecolutla, with wind speeds of 75mph (120kph).

The US National Hurricane Center reassures that:

Rapid weakening is forecast during the next 24 hours.

Irma forecast to hit Florida on Sunday

The NHC forecast says Irma is now predicted to move to the Florida Keys on Sunday morning local time, then to the south-west coast of Florida by Sunday afternoon.

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