Hurricane Harvey is a distant memory now as Hurricane Irma has been charging its way through Haiti and the Bahamas, and now it’s headed on its way to Florida, leaving death, devastation, and destruction in its path. At least 13 people have been confirmed to have lost their lives to Irma’s wrath, while the death count is expected to rise significantly as more information comes to light during the humanitarian efforts to provide relief to the hurricane’s victims.
The expectation of a rising death toll was announced by Lonnie Soury, speaking as a representative for the US Virgin Islands.
Captain Stephen Russell, who is a part of the Bahamas’ national service for dealing with emergency situations, has said that the biggest concern of the agency in response to Hurricane Irma is the rising tide levels that are coming as a result. He says that “our greatest concern” is the “destructive force of a 25-foot surge,” which he says would have the ability to “really cause catastrophic results.”
Irma is losing strength, while Jose and Katia are getting stronger
Irma has lost some of its strength, being downgraded from a category 5 storm to a category 4, but two other hurricanes in the same region have been gaining strength. Irma is by no means weak now, but the storm’s sustained wind speeds have dropped a full 30mph from 185mph to 155mph, which is a relatively small difference, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.
It seems as though the three storms are looking to meet somewhere in the middle. Coming close to matching Irma’s now-lowered 155 mph, Hurricane Jose has sustained speeds of 125mph with its increase in strength. The forecast says that over the weekend, Jose will reach the Leeward Islands, which spent earlier this week being battered by Hurricane Irma.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Katia has been building up its sustained wind speeds to 90 mph in the south-western direction from these other storms, as it batters the Gulf of Mexico.
The National Hurricane Centre have released two warnings, one about Jose and the other about Katia, to say that both have gotten “a little stronger.” Hopefully such a trajectory won’t continue and they’ll follow the example of Irma start to lose strength now, rather than continue to gain.
The NHC has yet to speculate on this, although they are expecting the storms to continue to rage on well into next week, so slowing down does seem unlikely at this point.
Governor of Florida warns that storm is bigger than the entire US state
Experts are expecting Hurricane Irma to spread vastly over the coming days. Right now, its path is headed straight for the US state of Florida, which is being evacuated in anticipation of the devastating superstorm. Before reaching the southern region of Florida, Irma will batter the northern part of Cuba.
Based on the forecast images released by the NHC, Florida Governor Rick Scott has warned that Irma will be “bigger than our entire state” and will have completely engulfed the state by early on Sunday morning.
After that, the hurricane is expected to reach parts of other US states bordering on Florida – North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Exactly what degree of impact the hurricane will have on these states remains to be seen, but Irma should have slowed down and weakened significantly by then.
Holidaymakers with trips booked for the Disney theme parks in the area are being allowed by the company to rearrange their holidays so that they don’t have to miss out, although the effects of the hurricane will decide just how long that will be. Obviously, Irma is the main priority for Florida over the course of this weekend, but for Disney, it seems that it’s still all about the consumers.
