'Potentially Catastrophic' Hurricane Irma Takes Aim at Caribbean Islands
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the "potentially catastrophic" storm, which packed sustained winds of 295 kilometers per hour (183 miles per hour), would reach the area around Puerto Rico by Wednesday night. Irma would also brush the coast of the Dominican Republic on Thursday, and arrive near the Turks and Caicos Islands and southeastern Bahamas late Thursday, forecasters said.
Irma was traveling west-northwest at 26 kilometers per hour and the NHC said the storm is expected to generally continue in that direction for the next couple of days.
Predicting the hurricane's path later in the week is more difficult, but warnings have been posted for the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the northern coast of Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Hurricane watches were issued for the central Bahamas and Cuba.
Irma is expected to remain a powerful Category 4 or 5 storm during the next few days.
"It's the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico in its line of fire and then we go into the Dominican Republic and Haiti," National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen told VOA. "Then we're looking at the Bahamas, northern coast of Cuba, and eventually portions of south Florida. There's an awful lot of real estate in front of Irma."
With winds of 295 kilometers per hour, Irma is among the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in history.
Feltgen said very few things can withstand winds that strong, meaning Irma has the potential to cause "catastrophic damage."
Forecasters said the hurricane could also bring storm surges of two to six meters to the islands along its path, as well as rainfall of 20 to 30 centimeters, with isolated areas getting as much as 50 centimeters (20 inches). The result could be life-threatening flooding and mudslides.
U.S. President Donald Trump has declared states of emergency in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Florida, and ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to begin relief efforts.
"There seems to be a record-breaking hurricane heading right toward Florida, Puerto Rico, other places," Trump told a bipartisan group of lawmakers Wednesday at a White House meeting. "We'll see what happens. We'll know in a short period of time, but it looks like something that won't be good. Believe me, not good."
Irma's forecast track shows the storm hitting or passing close to the U.S. state of Florida as a major hurricane sometime around Sunday. Uncertainty in predicting a hurricane's movements that far in advance leaves the potential for it to shift, with eastward movement putting the Bahamas more at risk, while a more westward track would shift the risk of landfall from south Florida to the state's panhandle.
Governor Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency for all of Florida and ordered tourists to leave the Florida Keys island chain.
A catastrophic strike on Florida would add to the challenges faced by FEMA, which is already helping parts of southeast Texas clean up and repair damage from Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm that hit August 25 and dropped a record amount of rain on that state.
VOA's Victor Beattie contributed to this report.