Hurricane Irma: USA Braces For Yet Another Catastrophe; Emergency Declared In Florida 

Hardly a week after Harvey dumped 50-plus inches of rain over parts of Houston and Louisiana, creating devastating floods, the USA is bracing for yet another deadly natural disaster - Hurricane Irma, which is expected to bring life-threatening wind, storm surge, and rainfall hazards to portions of the northeastern Leeward Islands tonight and tomorrow.

And the forecast track leaves a landfall in mainland Florida or the Florida Keys a possibility. Florida and Puerto Rico have already declared states of emergencies in preparation, freeing up resources for shelters, evacuations, and deploying National Guard members to help respond to the powerful storm. Officials in Miami-Dade in Florida county are currently considering starting evacuations of some residents on Wednesday. Mandatory evacuation orders are underway in the Florida Keys.

"If there is an evacuation order in your area, please follow it," Florida Governor Rick Scott said Tuesday. "We can rebuild your home but we cannot rebuild your life."

The hurricane packed maximum sustained winds of 185 mph late Tuesday afternoon and was traveling west at 15 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center reported in its 8 p.m. ET advisory. The storm was roaring toward the Leeward Islands. Irma’s center was about 85 miles east of Antigua and approximately 90 miles east-southeast of Barbuda, the advisory said.

While the exact forecast, size, and path of Irma will change, know this: Irma poses a threat to life and property from the Eastern Caribbean to the Gulf Coast.

Irma is now on a course to hit several Caribbean islands, including the US territory Puerto Rico, Tuesday night into Wednesday.

Other islands in the storm’s path include the US and British Virgin Islands, Antigua, and St. Kitts.

Irma is currently churning with sustained 185 mph winds, and is gusting even higher.

But wind speed alone does not completely describe the risk of a hurricane. These storms are made dangerous by a mix of three factors: floods from storm surge, heavy rainfall, and damaging winds. A Category 5 storm hits intensely on all three. The greatest threat to loss of life in most hurricanes is storm surge and coastal flooding — not wind.

The incredibly intense winds of Category 5 storms can completely destroy homes, uproot trees, and knock out power utilities for months. The National Hurricane Center reports that “some fluctuations in intensity are likely during the next day or two, but Irma is forecast to remain a powerful Category 4 or 5 hurricane during the next couple of days.”

But don’t focus solely on the category number. The Saffir-Simpson scale is ranked purely on wind speed. As we saw with Hurricane Harvey, even a downgraded hurricane or tropical storm can cause massive destruction and chaos. Even if Irma downgrades, it’s still dangerous.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research has a hurricane severity scale that factors in wind speed, hurricane size, and forward speed (whether it stalls or not) to rate the potential destructiveness of a storm 1-to-10 scale. Irma now rates at a 5.3. On this scale, Hurricane Katrina would have scored a 6.6.

Follow @MayorGimenez Mayor Gimenez is Miami-Dade @MiamiDadeFire @MiamiDadeEM @MiamiDadePD & @MiamiDadeCounty for official updates.

Forecasters warned the Florida Keys are especially at risk for possible damage. “People who are living (in the Florida Keys) or have property there are very scared, and they should be,” MIT meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel said.

Hurricane Allen hit 190 mph in 1980, a record for modern-day storms, while 2005's Wilma, 1988's Gilbert and a 1935 storm hitting the Florida Keys all had 185 mph winds.

Florida was in a state of emergency on Tuesday. At immediate risk were the small islands of the northern Leewards, along with the British and U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

"Some fluctuations in intensity are likely during the next day or two, but Irma is forecast to remain a powerful category 4 or 5 hurricane during the next couple of days," the National Hurricane Center warned.

Forecasters said there's a growing chance that Irma’s effects may be felt in Florida later this week and during the weekend.

Officials in the Florida Keys geared up to get tourists and residents out of Irma’s path, and the mayor of Miami-Dade county said people should be prepared to evacuate Miami Beach and most of the county's coastal areas. People across the state also stocked up on drinking water and other supplies.

“We’re just evacuating, getting out-of-town before everybody else does,” Luann Huff of Key West told CBS Miami, which reported that she was traveling to the central part of the state.

Miami's Deputy Director of the Building Department Maurice Pons advised against anyone staying near any of the city's 20 to 25 construction cranes. The cranes can "withstand winds up to 145 miles per hour, not a Category 4 Hurricane."

“For the Florida Keys, if you were to create the worst case scenario that is what we are looking at,” Monroe County Emergency Operations Center Director Martin Senterfitt was quoted as saying by the station.

Scott activated 100 members of the Florida National Guard to be deployed across the state, and 7,000 National Guard members were to report to duty Friday when the storm could be approaching the area.

On Monday, Scott declared a state of emergency in all of Florida's 67 counties. He said, “In Florida, we always prepare for the worst and hope for the best and while the exact path of Irma is not absolutely known at this time, we cannot afford to not be prepared.”

Scott ordered the suspension of road tolls across the state on Tuesday, saying in a statement, "They will be suspended for the duration of the storm’s impacts to Florida."

He told media at a Tuesday briefing that there will be a mandatory evacuation for Monroe County on Wednesday morning, and that Miami-Dade county has been advising people in "low-lying areas" to begin evacuation on Wednesday.

If Irma hits the Florida Straits, the water there is warm enough that the already “intense” storm could become much worse with wind speeds potentially reaching 225 mph, Emanuel warned.

The storm’s eye was expected to pass about 50 miles from Puerto Rico late Wednesday.

TRACK HURRICANE IRMA

"Puerto Rico has not seen a hurricane of this magnitude in almost 100 years," Carlos Anselmi, a National Weather Service meteorologist in San Juan, told The Associated Press.

Both Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands expected 4 inches to 10 inches of rain, according to the National Hurricane Center advisory.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said the voluntary evacuations could begin as soon as Wednesday evening. He activated the emergency operation center and urged residents to have three days' worth of food and water.

A new tropical storm also formed in the Atlantic on Tuesday, to the east of Irma.

The hurricane center said that Tropical Storm Jose was about 1,505 miles east of the Lesser Antilles with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph. It was moving west-northwest at 13 mph and was expected to become a hurricane by Friday.

Forecasters said there's a growing chance that Irma’s effects may be felt in Florida later this week and during the weekend.

Officials in the Florida Keys geared up to get tourists and residents out of Irma’s path, and the mayor of Miami-Dade county said people should be prepared to evacuate Miami Beach and most of the county's coastal areas. People across the state also stocked up on drinking water and other supplies.

“We’re just evacuating, getting out-of-town before everybody else does,” Luann Huff of Key West told CBS Miami, which reported that she was traveling to the central part of the state.

Miami's Deputy Director of the Building Department Maurice Pons advised against anyone staying near any of the city's 20 to 25 construction cranes. The cranes can "withstand winds up to 145 miles per hour, not a Category 4 Hurricane."

“For the Florida Keys, if you were to create the worst case scenario that is what we are looking at,” Monroe County Emergency Operations Center Director Martin Senterfitt was quoted as saying by the station.

Scott activated 100 members of the Florida National Guard to be deployed across the state, and 7,000 National Guard members were to report to duty Friday when the storm could be approaching the area.

On Monday, Scott declared a state of emergency in all of Florida's 67 counties. He said, “In Florida, we always prepare for the worst and hope for the best and while the exact path of Irma is not absolutely known at this time, we cannot afford to not be prepared.”