(ANTIMEDIA) — Residents of South Florida woke up Sunday 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.
#Irma is expected to bring heavy rainfall and flooding to much of Florida and portions of the southeast U.S. over the next few days @NWSWPC pic.twitter.com/veYDRoJNlg
— NHC Atlantic Ops (@NHC_Atlantic) September 10, 2017
By Sunday afternoon Irma had been downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane, but the NHC was still warning of an “imminent danger of life-threatening storm surge flooding along much of the Florida west coast.” More than 6.3 million people evacuated from their homes after the Florida governor ordered those in Irma’s projected path to seek safe shelter away from the storm. Local officials have declared curfews of 6:00 p.m. in the cities of St. Petersburg and Tampa Bay. [Update: Irma was downgraded to a tropical storm Monday morning.]
As Florida residents continue to brace for life-threatening storm surges of up to 15 feet, here are 11 surreal scenes from Miami that reminded us of a real-life disaster movie:
Store owners in #Miami watch as their store is surrounded by a wall of water. What a terrible and uneasy feeling. #HurricaneIrma #Irma @WFLA pic.twitter.com/F0wALvDpJz
— Josh Benson (@WFLAJosh) September 10, 2017
BREAKING NEWS: Downtown #Miami completely under water.#Irma pic.twitter.com/ydbWJ2Z6Uc
— BNL (@BreakingNLive) September 10, 2017
WHOA- So this is what Miami looks like right now! #HurrcaneIrma #Irma #Miami pic.twitter.com/870lynJcCu
— Mariah Honey (@ButterflyHoney) September 10, 2017
This is Brickell in downtown Miami. Totally underwater. #HurrcaneIrma @wsvn w pic.twitter.com/Fc0GsBP1T5
— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) September 10, 2017
Intense wind and rain on Miami Beach. Trees down. #HurricaneIrma is here — and we're not even getting the eye. Wind hasn't let up. @wsvn pic.twitter.com/qsEmE6FAGi
— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) September 10, 2017
These winds are punishing and water is rising. The view in Brickell. #HurricaneIrma pic.twitter.com/c0OKy5D9gR
— Joey Flechas (@joeflech) September 10, 2017
Streets turning into rivers in the Brickell area due to #Irma storm surge pic.twitter.com/pZFXzub0nJ
— WPLG Local 10 News (@WPLGLocal10) September 10, 2017
Roof of a home in #Miami coast being ripped off by powerful #HurricaneIrma winds. Terrifying stuff. These winds are no joke. #Irma pic.twitter.com/P0kMIKqlf6
— Josh Benson (@WFLAJosh) September 10, 2017
Intense #SouthBeach #SaturdayNight #HurricaneIrma #Curfew now…. 8p-7a @WPLGLocal10 pic.twitter.com/9AE1XDOL38
— Glenna Milberg (@GlennaOn10) September 10, 2017
Brickell area in #Miami taking the surge from #Irma. It's as deep as 2' at SE 12th St. & Brickell Ave. pic.twitter.com/UAhcDLij6N
— Mike Seidel (@mikeseidel) September 10, 2017
This is downtown #Miami as #Irma blew the bay into the Brickell Ave. area. The surge is starting to recede as the wind shifts. pic.twitter.com/MZoIVYc7aW
— Mike Seidel (@mikeseidel) September 10, 2017
“Today is going to the be the long day,” said Mark DeMaria, deputy acting director of Miami’s National Hurricane Center.
“A very dangerous day is unfolding in the Florida Keys and much of West Florida,” Michael Brennan, a senior hurricane specialist at the NHC said Sunday morning. “It certainly could inundate the entire island. That’s why everyone in the Keys was urged so strongly to evacuate.”
Irma is not your ordinary major hurricane. Consider these stats from CNN’s meteorology team:
- Irma is the strongest Atlantic basin hurricane ever recorded outside the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
- It spent three days as a Category 5 hurricane, the longest Category 5 hurricane since satellite storm-tracking began.
- No storm on record has maintained winds 185 mph or above for as long as Irma (total of 37 hours).
- It prompted the largest evacuation in the history of the Bahamas — and potentially the largest in the US.