Hurricane Irma Starts Raking Miami

At the Aloft Hotel in Doral, Fla., the mood among the guests awaiting Hurricane Irma’s arrival was solemn but calm on Sunday. The Category 4 hurricane made landfall at 10 a.m. Sunday morning in Cudjoe Key, just north of Key West, according to Miami-Dade County spokesman Mike Hernandez. By 11:30, the storm had crossed though the Keys and was headed north toward heavily populated swaths of South Florida. Its power was already becoming apparent in the Miami area. Outside the thick glass windows of the Aloft, tropical-force winds raked through the industrial neighborhood, ripping the fronds off palm trees, uprooting street signs and downing power lines. A construction crane collapsed downtown. More than 1.5 million customers are now without power across South Florida, according to utility companies. Eyewitnesses reported waist-deep flooding in some Miami streets, including three to four feet in the city’s financial district, south of downtown. White caps broke in front of a closed CVS. A few blocks from the hotel, a half-dozen trees, their roots exposed like muddy fists, had fallen on parked cars. Wind gusts topped 65 miles per hour. But inside the Aloft’s warm lobby, the lights flickered and breakfast pastries were served. “We have enough for everyone for three days,” said Erica Santiago, 34, one of several black-clad servers bustling around a table set with coffee, toast and muffins. Like most other Aloft employees, Santiago had slept at the hotel...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Florida hurricane irma Source Type: news