Hurricane Irma makes landfall in Cuba as massive storm, millions evacuated

IANS photo

Havana Province: Hurricane Irma made landfall as a maximum-strength Category Five storm late Friday, US forecasters said, after leaving a trail of death and destruction on a string of Caribbean islands.

At 0300 GMT, the monster storm had made landfall on the communist island's Camaguey Archipelago, with the eye of the storm just 190 kilometers (120 miles) east-southeast of the Cuban city of Caibarien, and 300 miles south-southeast of Miami, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

It had maximum sustained winds of 260 kilometers per hour and was moving west at 20 kilometers per hour, also posing an increasing threat to the US state of Florida.

Millions of residents in Florida were ordered to evacuate as Hurricane Irma roared toward the state on Friday after lashing Cuba, killing 21 people in the eastern Caribbean and leaving catastrophic destruction in its wake. 

Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century, was expected to hit Florida on Sunday morning, bringing massive damage from wind and flooding to the fourth-largest state by population.

A historic evacuation, including from areas around Miami, has been made more difficult by clogged highways, gasoline shortages and the challenge of moving older people in the top retirement destination. 

The storm could regain strength and hit the Florida Keys as a Category 5 hurricane, the most powerful designation by the National Hurricane Center, with sustained winds of 160 miles per hour (258 km per hour).

The United States has been hit by only three Category 5 storms since 1851, and Irma is far larger than the last one in 1992, Hurricane Andrew, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).