Hurricane Irma makes landfall in Florida, wreaking destruction

The NOAA has released a satellite image depicting the current status of Hurricane Irma from the air, along with some specific data recorded. 

As of thirty mintues ago, the eye was just southeast of Fort Myers. Irma is traveling north at 22 km/h, and a north-northwestward motion with an increase in forward speed is expected later today, with that motion continuing tomorrow.

On the forecast track, the eye of Irma should move near or over the west coast of the Florida Peninsula through Monday morning, US time. Irma should then move inland over northern Florida and southwestern Georgia Monday afternoon.

Maximum sustained winds are near 175 km/h with higher gusts also recorded. Although weakening is forecast, Irma is expected to remain a hurricane at least through Monday morning in the US.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 130 km from the centre, and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 350 km. These strong winds cover the majority of the state of Florida.

A weather station at Naples Municipal Airport recently reported a sustained wind of 142 km/h with a gust to 217 km/h while in the northern eyewall of Irma.

The minimum central pressure reported by an Air Force Hurricane Hunter aircraft is 938 mb (27.70 inches). A pressure of 937 mb (27.67 inches) was measured by a storm spotter on Marco Island while in Irma's eye.

Models are predicting that it could be a number of hours before the eye of the storm moves through Tampa Bay, but high winds in the area are already causing damage.

Authorities are warning that it could be a long night ahead for residents of Tampa and surrounding regions, with curfews in place to ensure people remain safely in their homes. 

For context to this tweet, it's a two hour drive from Fort Myers to Tampa Bay.

More than 2.7 million Florida residents have lost power as a result of Hurricane Irma and power company officials warned on Sunday in the US that restoring electricity will be a slow and dangerous process that will take weeks.

Florida Power & Light CEO Eric Silagy said at a news conference that he expects full power restoration after the storm to take "multi-weeks," as it did after the Category 5 Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida in 1992.

"Plan for extended and prolonged outages," FPL spokesman Rob Gould said. "We expect, given the fact the storm has slowed down, many of our customers will be out for a day or longer, given that, much like emergency responders, our crews cannot get out and work. It's just too dangerous."

The company said repairs and restoration would take a million man-hours to complete statewide. In South Florida, 17,000 line and vegetation workers employed by FPL and companies in California, Massachusetts Texas, Colorado and Wisconsin, are in position to start recovery work.

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NASA has released some impressive imagery depicting the trajectory that Irma has taken throughout the past 48 hours.

As Irma tears through the state of Florida, those living in Caribbean have begun counting the toll of the devastation the storm has already caused.

The storm-stricken Caribbean took on the feel of a sprawling disaster zone Sunday, with Cuban first responders using inflatable rafts to navigate flooded streets as panicked families sent up social media pleas in search of loved ones on hard-hit islands further east.

In St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, "people there are roaming like zombies," said Stacey Alvarado, a bar owner who managed to leave for the mainland. Her husband, who is still there, told her Sunday that residents and tourists are in shock. "They don't know what to do. The island was wiped out. It's like the walking dead down there."

In Cuba, where the government said it had evacuated 1 million residents, Hurricane Irma's driving winds and pelting rains sent roofs flying, knocked over trees, wrecked building and caused large-scale flooding along the northern coast. Officials in Havana warned of flooding that would last through Monday. In the city of Santa Clara, the Associated Press reported that 39 buildings had collapsed.

As streets turned into rivers, authorities took to inflatable rafts to access coastal neighbourhoods. Some Cubans had even sought shelter in caves. The brutal storm struck Cuba along a coast studded with resorts that are among the pillars of the island's economy. Authorities warned of heavy damage from the storm, which has so far killed at least 25 people across the Caribbean.

"The hardest-hit provinces are Camaguey, Villa Clara, Sancti Spiritus and to some extent Matanzas, the resort area of Varadero, which was directly in the path of the hurricanes and where all the tourists were evacuated," Richard Paterson, the CARE organisation's representative in Cuba, said by phone from Havana.

"Power has been turned off throughout the city, in fact, throughout the country," he said. "The electricity infrastructure received extensive, serious damage."

The storm has shifted inland slightly, which should help the storm lose intensity slightly quicker than expected.

However, high winds are still being recorded across the state and the threat of storm surges has not abated.

Hurricane Irma continues to lash America's southeast, but east coast residents are being warned to prepare for Hurricane Jose. 

Jose is likely to spend a few days sitting in a holding pattern in the Atlantic Ocean, circling around before heading on a trajectory towards the east coast of America.

It is too early to tell where it is like to make landfall, if it makes landfall at all, but residents have been told to get prepared for what is currently a Category Four hurricane. 

This is what Fort Myers looked like a short time ago, with water levels rising and high winds threatening to uproot a number of large trees.

The eye of the storm is now located near Fort Myers as the hurricane continues to track north. Wind gusts of 140km/h have been recorded as flood waters continue to rise throughout the city.

Earlier, an extreme wind warning was issued for the area around Fort Myers due to the likelihood of destructive winds up to 190 km/h. As the eyewall moved over Naples, it reported sustained winds of 150 km/h and a gust to 220 km/h.

Josh Morgerman, a hurricane chaser positioned in Naples, described the scene, "Went through violent, destructive winds. Screaming, white out, wreckage blowing by in fog." Then the calm eye moved overhead.

The Weather Service also issued a flash flood emergency for region from Marco Island to Naples due to the expected sudden onset of storm surge flooding. Just after 4 p.m. local time, waters were rising quickly around Naples - about four feet in 30 minutes.

Prior to the arrival of the storm centre, water was actually retreating from Naples to Tampa due to offshore winds from the east pulling the sea back. But forecasters warned residents that about two to three hours after the storm's centre passed to the north and winds blew back onshore, waters would rapidly rush back causing severe inundation.

In Southeast Florida, spiral bands continued to unleash tropical-storm-force winds. Sustained winds in Miami and Fort Lauderdale reached 80-95 km/h through early afternoon, gusting as high as 130 to 160 km/h. Miami International Airport clocked a gust to 151 km/h and an isolated gust hit 161 km/h at the University of Miami.

Even into the early evening, winds were gusting up to 120 km/h around Miami.

Over 2.5 million customers were without power, mostly in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Early in the afternoon, the seas had risen several feet above normally dry land. Social media photos and videos showed water pouring through Miami's streets, in between high-rises, amidst sideways sheets of rains.

Late Sunday afternoon, waters were finally starting to slowly recede around Miami.

As the storm's spiral bands walloped South and Central Florida, the potential for tornadoes arose in the swirling air, and the Weather Service issued watches and warnings.

While the core of the storm and worst winds had passed the Keys, the Weather Service warned storm surge flooding was ongoing as winds on the storm's backside shoved water over the islands. Gusts still reached 80 to 110 km/h through 5 p.m local time.

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In lighter news, American news outlets have broadcast this footage of a Tampa amusement park moving flamingos to safety.

The NOAA is forecasting heavy rainfall for the next 72 hours, with 10 inches of rain predicted to fall in central and northern Florida throughout the next few days. 

The rainfall will potentially lead to flooding for many towns, with southern Georgia also falling in the high-risk zone.

The incredible pictures coming out of Miami have continued, with this video displaying water and winds moving through downtown Miami.

The concern surrounding storm surges has grown in Naples, with water levels rising by over 4.5 feet in just one hour.

The levels are expected to peak at between 10-15 feet.

This graph depicts how the water levels initially receded, before suddenly starting to rise. 

This next story can be filed in the "Only in America" category, after residents have been warned not to shoot the hurricane. 

Residents are being warned that the bullets will not turn the hurricane around and there may be serious side effects to shooting the storm.

The Washington Post is reporting that the idea was initially raised as a joke, but many people took the idea seriously.

Fairfax's US correspondent Paul McGeough has provided a look at the magnitude of this storm, reporting on the level of destruction Irma has caused, not just in Florida but throughout the Caribbean as well.

He outlines the threat to Tampa, a city which was initially listed as a safe zone and saw many Florida residents evacuate to.

There are now grave fears that the city is unprepared to cope with the storm surges associated with the hurricane.

US President Donald Trump has approved a major disaster declaration for Florida and ordered federal aid to help the state struck by Hurricane Irma.

The declaration means residents and businesses can apply for grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs.

The federal government will also reimburse counties for emergency protective measures including evacuation and sheltering costs as well as for much of the costs of debris removal.

Earlier, Trump described the storm as "some big monster".

"The bad news is that this is some big monster," he said.

"Right now, we are worried about lives, not cost.

The path of the storm, tracking the west coast of Florida, meant it might be less destructive than it would otherwise have been, Trump said, noting the next five or six hours would be critical.

"I hope there aren't too many people in the path," he said. "You don't want to be in that path."

Reuters

The eye of the hurricane has passed over the city of Naples, with residents and journalists allowed to briefly leave their homes and hotels to survey the damage that the storm has caused. 

Writing for the Guardian, Ed Pilkington described the bizarre scene of damage contrasted with bright and calm weather.  

"The reason we could do that because we are now in the eye of the storm – literally. Suddenly everything became bright and still, and going outside we could begin to see just a tiny part of the wreckage with several trees down." 

The wind is so calm it's like nothing ever happened. It won't last though. The southern eye wall is about to reach us and then we will be pummelled all over again."

The NBC's Erika Glover also headed outside to assess the damage, filming this video of tree branches strewn across the street.

On the topic of reporters in the field, this reporter managed to stumble into an extremely well-informed resident.

Despite the numerous evacuation warnings issued by government officials, American television networks have moved in, with multiple reporters bravely, or stupidly, reporting live from Florida.

Many have been quick to criticise the networks for putting their reporters in unsafe conditions, with the New York Times taking a deeper look at the practice.