‘This Is a Life-Threatening Situation.’ Forecasters Warn of Irma’s Wrath

As Hurricane Irma bore down on South Florida on Saturday, meteorologists and hurricane experts had a dire message for local residents: Hurricane Irma is strong enough to kill you. “This is a life-threatening situation,” said Mike Brennan, the center’s chief hurricane specialist, nodding into a scrum of television cameras at the National Hurricane Center, a squat concrete building just west of Miami International Airport. “We’re looking at potentially catastrophic storm surge values and you’re running out of time.” Hurricane Irma, among the biggest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic, made landfall over Cuba Friday, which temporarily weakened the storm, knocking it down from a Category 4 to a Category 3 hurricane, according to forecasts by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “But we don’t want people to focus on that,” Brennan told TIME. As the storm passes over the warm water between Cuba and South Florida, it will likely increase in intensity yet again. “This thing has been so resilient. It’s going to get strong again.” Residents who think they can just “ride this one out” as they have smaller storms in the past are fooling themselves, said Jamie Rhome, who runs the storm surge team at the Hurricane Center. “Not only is that wrong, but thinking that way could cause you to lose your life,” he warned. The track of the massive storm has shifted slightly w...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Florida hurricane hurricane irma Source Type: news