As it traversed the state of Florida, Hurricane (now tropical depression) Irma left a trail of destruction not seen since Hurricane Andrew hammered the state in 1992. But despite the rising death toll, historic flooding and a ruined power grid that could take weeks to repair, meteorologists say Floridians should consider themselves fortunate.
Because it could’ve been much, much worse.
The National Hurricane Center downgraded Irma to a Tropical Depression late Monday night, but even in its weakened state, the storm continues to cause deadly storm surges and volatile winds as it travels through Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, flooding downtown Charleston, South Carolina and uprooting trees in Atlanta, according to CNN.
Meanwhile, authorities have confirmed 11 deaths from the storm.
While Hurricane Irma, which was reclassified as a tropical storm early Monday, spared Miami from a "worst case" scenario, the former hurricane saved some of its worst storm surge impacts for northeast Florida, coastal Georgia, and South Carolina.
As much of Florida is left flooded and without power from this weekend's hurricane, the damage across much of the Caribbean goes well beyond water damage and downed power lines with many describing the devastation left by Irma as "end-of-the-world times." As one resident of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands told the Washington Post, "it was beyond rough times, it was end-of-the-world times...everything normal to us has been destroyed."
Authored by Aaron Nelson via TheAntiMedia.org,
Residents of South Florida woke up yesterday morning to Hurricane Irma making landfall at 9:10 a.m. in the Florida Keys as a monster Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph.
The monster storm made a second landfall later at 3:35 p.m. near Marco Island as it continued traveling north along Florida’s Gulf Coast. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) expects Irma to continue overnight into Monday before finally losing hurricane strength status.