'Potentially catastrophic' Irma barrels toward Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico

[webfact]

'Potentially catastrophic' Irma barrels toward Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico

By Scott Malone

 

A member of the Emergency Operations Committee (COE) monitors the trajectory of Hurricane Irma in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic September 5, 2017. REUTERS/Ricardo Rojas

 

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Hurricane Irma, a record Category 5 storm, churned across the Atlantic on Tuesday on a collision course with Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, threatening to lash the northern Caribbean with a potentially devastating mix of fierce winds, surf and rain.

 

The eye of Irma, a monster storm packing winds of 185 miles (295 km) per hour, is expected to cross the northern Leeward Islands, east of Puerto Rico, on Tuesday night or early Wednesday, and is on track to reach Florida by Saturday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami reported.

 

The threat posed to the U.S. mainland by Irma, described by forecasters as a "potentially catastrophic" storm, loomed as Texas and Louisiana continued to reel from widespread destructive flooding from Hurricane Harvey.

 

Hurricane warnings, the highest level of NHC alerts, were posted for several of the Leeward Islands, including Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, as well as for the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

 

"Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion," the Hurricane Center said, warning that Irma "will bring life-threatening wind, storm surge and rainfall hazards" to those islands.

 

Along the beachfront of Puerto Rico's capital, San Juan, work crews scrambled to cover windows with plywood and corrugated metal shutters along Avenida Ashford, a stretch of restaurants, hotels and six-story apartments.

 

"I am worried because this is the biggest storm we have seen here," said Jonathan Negron, 41, as he supervised workers boarding up his souvenir shop. "We're doing all we can. We have the shutters, and we are covering the electronics in plastic."

 

On a nearby beach, where calm surf on Tuesday belied the fury that Irma was forecast to bring, Denise Watkins, 52, of Midlothian, Texas, was reconsidering her vacation plans.

 

"I just got off the plane, and I already want to leave. I do not want to be here for this storm," Watkins said.

Pointing to boarded-up windows on oceanfront buildings, she said, "I see everything covered up like that and it makes me nervous."

 

At 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT), Irma was about 130 miles (210 km) east of Antigua in the eastern Caribbean and moving west at 15 miles per hour (24 kmh), according to the NHC. Maximum sustained winds of 185 mph, with hurricane-force winds extending 60 miles (95 km) from the storm's centre, forecasters said.

 

The NHC said Irma ranked as one of the five most powerful Atlantic hurricanes during the past 80 years and the strongest in the Atlantic storm outside the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico in NHC records.

 

STORM UPGRADED

 

The storm was upgraded to a Category 5, the highest NHC designation, earlier in the day. While some fluctuations in intensity are likely, Irma is expected to remain a Category 4 or 5 for the next couple of days, the Hurricane Center said.

 

Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello urged the 3.4 million residents of the U.S. territory to seek refuge in one of 460 hurricane shelters in advance of the storm.

 

"This is something without precedent," Rossello told a news conference. He said he would ask U.S. President Donald Trump to declare a federal state of emergency even before the storm passes to allow disbursement of U.S. emergency funds.

 

Florida Governor Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency, and said on Tuesday he had also asked Trump to make a "pre-landfall" emergency declaration.

 

Irma was expected to reach southern Florida on Saturday, and shares in insurance companies with exposure in the state tumbled in Tuesday trading.

 

Gary Randall, head of the Blue Waters Resort on Antigua's north coast, said the staff had boarded up windows, stripped trees of coconuts and fronds and secured anything that could become a hazard.

 

"I wasn't that nervous yesterday, but today I'm nervous," Randall said by telephone, adding that he expected the hotel's beach to be swept away and much of the 108-room property to be flooded.

 

Hurricane watches were in effect for Guadeloupe, Haiti, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas.

 

Julia Nuñez Rodriguez, a single mother of three who lives north of Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital, was most worried about the potentially high death toll. "I'm hoping and praying for the best," she said.

 

Airlines cancelled flights to the region, and American Airlines added three extra flights to Miami from San Juan, St. Kitts and St. Maarten.

 

Irma is expected to become the second powerful storm to thrash the U.S. mainland in as many weeks, but its precise trajectory remained uncertain on Tuesday. The Atlantic hurricane season ends on Nov. 30.

 

Residents of Texas and Louisiana were still recovering from Hurricane Harvey, which struck Texas as a Category 4 hurricane on Aug. 25. It dumped several feet of rain, destroying thousands of homes and businesses, killed an estimated 60 people and displaced more than 1 million others.

 

(Additional reporting by Alana Wise in New York and Ian Simpson in Washington; Writing by Ian Simpson and Steve Gorman; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and James Dalgleish)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-09-06

[Guest]

It's funny that these huge hurricanes seem to happen to the southern states, only when the overly religious republicans are in power? Could it be a message from God himself?

 

Or, could it be that the climate change is really going on and it has stepped to next gear?

 

 

[ilostmypassword]

1 minute ago, oilinki said:

It's funny that these huge hurricanes seem to happen to the southern states, only when the overly religious republicans are in power? Could it be a message from God himself?

 

Or, could it be that the climate change is really going on and it has stepped to next gear?

 

 

Sandy?

[Guest]

1 minute ago, ilostmypassword said:

Sandy?

I thought my post was absurd enough, when including the word "God", but I did include southern states for a reason. 

[BuaBS]

I'm sure by now CNN has put the blame on Putin for Harvey & Irma .

[Guest]

1 minute ago, BuaBS said:

I'm sure by now CNN has put the blame on Putin for Harvey & Irma .

Well, why not? Let's dig a bit deeper to the politics and the science.

Scientifically speaking Russia benefits of the warming climate. There is more space to grow crops. The Arctic passway is open for boats, from Russia to Asia, with love.. 

 

One big and most ignored fact why Trump's USA parted the Global climate agreement, was to benefit Russia. This way USA is the bad boy and Russia get's a free pass.. 

But what do I know.
 

 

[ilostmypassword]

1 hour ago, oilinki said:

I thought my post was absurd enough, when including the word "God", but I did include southern states for a reason. 

Anyway, I absolutely agree with you about God punishing the Southern States. Sandy was just an error on his part. Which is entirely excusable. God is really really old.

[Scott]

As bad as Sandy was, and as old as God is and as nefarious as Putin may be, I believe that we should stick to this potentially deadly storm for the time being.  

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

Anyway, I absolutely agree with you about God punishing the Southern States. Sandy was just an error on his part. Which is entirely excusable. God is really really old.

Didn't Sandy punish the liberal and democratic part of the country?

 

Perhaps the God is giving hints, that USA is not  really doing it's best as an parent of the world.

 

[Guest]

Just now, Scott said:

As bad as Sandy was, and as old as God is and as nefarious as Putin may be, I believe that we should stick to this potentially deadly storm for the time being.  

Can we still have some irrational fun with this event. As we all know, there will be 
"God bless you all", "I pray for you", "Your soul is important", messages in few days. 

There are times, when we have to show, that we nerds are thinking way ahead into the future, compared to the religious and 'patriotic' folks. 

[balo]

This storm will wipe the Virgin islands off the map . I hope they have time to evacuate.

Edited September 6, 2017 by balo

[Naam]

21 minutes ago, balo said:

This storm will wipe the Virgin islands off the map . I hope they have time to evacuate.

the Virgin Islands have weathered dozens of strong hurricanes and are still on the map.

 

[ilostmypassword]

3 minutes ago, Naam said:

the Virgin Islands have weathered dozens of strong hurricanes and are still on the map.

 

dozens of hurricanes as strong as this one?

[Naam]

1 minute ago, ilostmypassword said:

dozens of hurricanes as strong as this one?

the Virgin Islands are mountainous. no hurricane will wipe them of the map. we visited St. Croix after "Hugo" a category 5 had caused a lot of damage in 1989.

[ilostmypassword]

Just now, Naam said:

the Virgin Islands are mountainous. no hurricane will wipe them of the map. we visited St. Croix after "Hugo" a category 5 had caused a lot of damage in 1989.

Mountainous is not necessarily a good thing. Flooding is made much worse by mountains. And when Hugo hit St. Croix it was a category 4. 

Hurricane Hugo was a powerful Cape Verde-type hurricane that caused widespread damage and loss of life in the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Southeast United States. .. Hugo moved thousands of miles across the Atlantic, rapidly strengthening to briefly attain category 5 hurricane strength on its journey. It later crossed over Guadeloupe and St. Croix on September 17 and 18 as a category 4 hurricane. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Hugo

Of course the category is only relevant in respect to how direct the hit is. Irma is a category 5 hurricane but that just means its center has winds that high.

[kamahele]

4 hours ago, BuaBS said:

I'm sure by now CNN has put the blame on Putin for Harvey & Irma .

I think that CNN is using scientists to put the blame where it belongs, on the season (it is hurricane season) and on climate change (warmer climate, stronger storms).

[midas]

FEMA Is Almost Out of Money and Hurricane Irma Is Approaching

 

Quote

As of 10 a.m. Tuesday morning, FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, which pays for the agency’s disaster response and recovery activity, had just $1.01 billion on hand. And of that, just $541 million was "immediately available" for response and recovery efforts related to Hurricane Harvey, according to a spokeswoman for FEMA who asked not to be identified by name.

The $1.01 billion in the fund Tuesday morning is less than half of the $2.14 billion that was there at 9 a.m. last Thursday morning -- a spend rate of $9.3 million every hour, or about $155,000 a minute.

 

 

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-05/fema-is-almost-out-of-money-as-hurricane-irma-threatens-florida

[Guest]

How easy is for leaders to say, I care of you.

 

 

 

[overherebc]

Not often that I think about the rest of the world but if this storm doesn't take a turn north then it's going to be a bad one.

I hope it does make a turn away, north east, but that's in the hands of nature.

Feel sorry for the poor b-ggers in it's path, won't be many places to run and hide.

[overherebc]

48 minutes ago, midas said:

FEMA Is Almost Out of Money and Hurricane Irma Is Approaching

 

 

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-05/fema-is-almost-out-of-money-as-hurricane-irma-threatens-florida

Got a friend who is working as a nurse out there during/after the one that that hit Texas, she is happy to be doing 20 hour days doing what she can.

[midas]

10 minutes ago, overherebc said:

Got a friend who is working as a nurse out there during/after the one that that hit Texas, she is happy to be doing 20 hour days doing what she can.

I was wondering earlier today-maybe it's mother nature's way to encourage people to get around the negotiating table rather than destroy the world in a nuclear holocaust?

Surely America can't effectively deal with the aftermath of one and now possibly two major natural disasters and start a major war in the Far East all at the same time?

[BuaBS]

5 hours ago, midas said:

mother nature's way

Mother nature is seriously flawed and should look at herself for a while before "encourage people to get around the negotiating table" , which she can't .

[Guest]

51 minutes ago, overherebc said:

Got a friend who is working as a nurse out there during/after the one that that hit Texas, she is happy to be doing 20 hour days doing what she can.

Is she really? How long do you think she is able to do those hours without a decent rest?

 

 

[ilostmypassword]

"Irma has caused “major damage” on several Caribbean islands, French Overseas Territories Minister Annick Girardin, said, according to AFP.

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb also said that government buildings on the island of Saint Martin - the most sturdy built there - had been destroyed.

“We know that the four most solid buildings on the island have been destroyed which means that more rustic structures have probably been completely or partially destroyed,” he told reporters."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2017/sep/06/hurricane-irma-caribbean-islands-category-5-storm

[overherebc]

2 hours ago, oilinki said:

Is she really? How long do you think she is able to do those hours without a decent rest?

 

 

Until she has a break I suppose. Maybe 3 or 4 days then a day off.

Here's me thinking I was I was giving her a compliment.

[citybiker]

I wonder how far west it'll travel within the Caribbean?

I've a friend in Cayman Islands which I've not heard any updates yet.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[ilostmypassword]

27 minutes ago, citybiker said:

I wonder how far west it'll travel within the Caribbean?

I've a friend in Cayman Islands which I've not heard any updates yet.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Cayman Islands are well south of Cuba. None of the projections I've seen predict any problem for the Cayman islands or the Yucatan.

[citybiker]

Cayman Islands are well south of Cuba. None of the projections I've seen predict any problem for the Cayman islands or the Yucatan.

I know it's location as I've been to both CI & Cuba , I've also been monitoring the situation closely, I'm aware it's still Far East but also a lot of seriously worried people out there.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[ilostmypassword]

38 minutes ago, citybiker said:

I wonder how far west it'll travel within the Caribbean?

I've a friend in Cayman Islands which I've not heard any updates yet.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Just now, citybiker said:

I know it's location as I've been to both CI & Cuba , I've also been monitoring the situation closely, I'm aware it's still Far East but also a lot of seriously worried people out there.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Oh, I thought you were asking a question. I guess the question mark was decorative.

 

 

[hawker9000]

22 hours ago, oilinki said:

It's funny that these huge hurricanes seem to happen to the southern states, only when the overly religious republicans are in power? Could it be a message from God himself?

 

Or, could it be that the climate change is really going on and it has stepped to next gear?

 

 

 

21 hours ago, oilinki said:

Well, why not? Let's dig a bit deeper to the politics and the science.

Scientifically speaking Russia benefits of the warming climate. There is more space to grow crops. The Arctic passway is open for boats, from Russia to Asia, with love.. 

 

One big and most ignored fact why Trump's USA parted the Global climate agreement, was to benefit Russia. This way USA is the bad boy and Russia get's a free pass.. 

But what do I know.
 

 

Good question.