ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on Hurricane Irma (all times local):
3:30 p.m.
Hurricane Irma is affecting the House of Representative’s work schedule in Washington.
A notice from the House majority leader’s office says the House now doesn’t plan to take any votes Monday because of “the large number of absences” as a result of the storm.
The first votes of the week are expected Tuesday evening.
The House leadership will keep tabs on the situation and announce updates as necessary.
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3:15 p.m.
The eye of Hurricane Irma is nearing Naples, Florida, and continues to cause destruction over a wide swath of South Florida.
The National Hurricane Center said Irma had winds of 120 mph (195 kilometers) and was centered 20 miles (30 kilometers) south of Naples on Sunday afternoon. It was moving north at 12 mph (19 kilometers per hour). At that rate, the center of the storm should come ashore sometime between 4 and 5 p.m.
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3:30 p.m.
Hurricane Irma has pushed water out of a bay in Tampa, but forecasters are telling people not to venture out there, because it’s going to return with a potentially deadly vengeance.
On Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa, approximately 100 people were walking Sunday afternoon on what was Old Tampa Bay — a body of water near downtown. Hurricane Irma’s winds and low tide have pushed the water unusually far from its normal position. Some people are venturing as far as 200 yards (180 meters) out to get to the water’s new edge. The water is normally about 4 to 5 feet (1 to 1.5 meters) deep and reaches a seawall.
The U.S. Hurricane Center has sent out an urgent alert warning of a “life-threatening storm surge inundation of 10 to 15 feet (3 to 5 meters) above ground level” and telling people to “MOVE AWAY FROM THE WATER!”
The waters retracted because the leading wind bands of Irma whipped the coastal water more out to sea. But once the eye passes and the wind reverses, the water will rush back in.
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3:30 p.m. Hurricane Irma is affecting the House of Representative’s work schedule in Washington.
A notice from the House majority leader’s office says the House now doesn’t plan to take any votes Monday because of “the large number of absences” as a result of the storm.
The first votes of the week are expected Tuesday evening.
The House leadership will keep tabs on the situaton and announce updates as necessary.
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3:15 p.m.
Miami City Manager Daniel Alfonso says a second tower crane has collapsed into a building under construction in the city’s downtown area. Alfonso told The Associated Press that the crane collapsed in a large development with multiple towers being built by Grand Paraiso.
Another crane collapsed earlier Sunday onto a high-rise building that’s under construction in a bayfront area filled with hotels and high-rise condo and office buildings, near AmericanAirlines Arena. Officials said no one was injured as the result of either crane’s collapse.
High winds are impeding Miami authorities’ ability to reach the cranes, and authorities are urging people to avoid the areas.
Alfonso says the approximately two-dozen other cranes in the city are still upright and built to withstand significant wind gusts.
The tower cranes working on construction sites throughout the city were a concern ahead of Irma. Moving the massive equipment, weighing up to 30,000 pounds (13,600 kilograms), is a slow process that would have taken about two weeks, according to city officials.
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2 p.m.
The National Hurricane Center says a slightly weakened but still powerful Irma will slam the Naples and Marco Island with its strongest winds in a couple of hours.
Irma’s winds dropped to 120 mph (195 kilometers per hour), down from 130 mph, and forecasters say it should weaken a bit more before landfall. But it still expected to a strong major hurricane as it rakes Florida from its western edges across to the east.
The storm is 35 miles (55 kilometers) south of Naples and has picked up speed moving north at 12 mph (19 kilometers per hour).
The now Category 3 hurricane will keep on battering all of South Florida with high wind and surge, forecasters say. The hurricane center in western Miami, across the state from the eye of the mammoth storm, recorded an 81 mph (130 kilometers per hour) wind gust.
“This is a life-threatening situation,” the hurricane center posted.
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2 p.m.
An apparent tornado spun off by Hurricane Irma has destroyed six mobile homes in Florida.
Palm Bay Police Department Lt. Mike Bandish said no one was injured in Sunday’s tornado, but that a 93-year-old man refused to leave his damaged home. He told Florida Today that officers tried to convince him to leave, but he wouldn’t.
Palm Bay is on Florida’s central Atlantic Coast near the Kennedy Space Center. The eye of Irma was hundreds of miles away when the tornado struck.
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2 p.m.
Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Elaine Duke says she doesn’t have any doubt that the federal government can respond to Hurricane Irma and the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey simultaneously.
Duke spoke Sunday afternoon at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters. Talking about efforts to respond to Irma in Florida and the aftermath of Harvey in Texas she says, “I know we’re ready and … I don’t have any doubt … that as a federal government we can do this and will do this.”
Duke says she and FEMA chief Brock Long spoke earlier Sunday with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence and that they are “absolutely pleased with the response” and that they “understand that we’re just getting started in many ways.”
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2 p.m.
Some exterior paneling of AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami, home of the NBA’s Heat, has been damaged by wind. The arena is near the downtown Miami location where a crane snapped as Irma pounded away Sunday. But a team official told The Associated Press that an initial investigation showed no structural damage. They’ll investigate further once conditions make it safe for workers to be outside. The Heat do not play in the arena until their preseason opener on Oct. 1.
At Raymond James Stadium in Tampa — where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play football — local, regional and statewide authorities are using the parking lots and surroundings as a staging area for high-water vehicles and equipment. On Saturday afternoon, several U.S. Marine amphibious vehicles were parked side by side, giant tanks that are ready to plunge into floodwater if needed.
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2 p.m.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott says members of his family who evacuated from Naples ahead of Hurricane Irma are leaving again now that it appears the killer storm will descend on the state capital.
Scott’s wife, First Lady Ann Scott, as well as his daughter, his son-in-law and grandchildren left southwest Florida and came to the state capital. Scott owns a waterfront mansion in an area that is in the path of the hurricane.
But Scott said Sunday that his daughter and grandchildren will be leaving Tallahassee to go to Washington, D.C. His daughter just gave birth to twins. Scott said it would be “tough for them if we lose power.”
The governor said he doesn’t know what storm preparations have taken place at the governor’s mansion, located a few blocks north of the Capitol. He said he “hasn’t really been there” because he has been in other parts of the state or at the state emergency operations center.
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2 p.m.
Major General Michael Calhoun, the head of Florida’s National Guard, says that more than 10,000 National Guard members from other states are going to be coming into the state.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott has already called up 7,000 members of the Florida National Guard to help with recovery efforts from Hurricane Irma. Those members have been dispatched to shelters around the state and will be involved in handing out supplies in storm-ravaged areas once Irma has passed through.
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2 p.m.
Georgia’s governor has declared an emergency for the entire state as Hurricane Irma’s approach triggers widespread severe-weather threats, including the first-ever tropical storm warning for Atlanta.
Gov. Nathan Deal’s new emergency declaration came Sunday as Irma churned near Florida. The National Hurricane Center predicted the storm’s center to cross Monday into southwest Georgia, where a hurricane warning was issued for communities including Albany and Valdosta.
Portions of western Alabama and coastal South Carolina were also under tropical-storm warnings.
The National Weather Service confirmed it had never before issued a tropical-storm warning for Atlanta, where wind gusts could reach 55 mph (88 kph). Meanwhile Savannah and the rest of coastal Georgia were under evacuation orders for the second time since Hurricane Matthew brushed the region last October.
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2 p.m.
More than 500 emergency responders are sleeping on cots in the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, waiting to dispatch to areas devastated by Hurricane Irma.
The convention center had planned to host an elevator-industry gathering this weekend. Instead, more than 1,000 emergency vehicles are lined up in its halls: boats, ambulances, fork lifts, buses, 18-wheelers, fire trucks, and 62 helicopters.
Rescue teams from Florida, Colorado, New York, California and Arizona were checking their gear and resting up so that they would be prepared to hit the road as soon as the storm clears. Some of those emergency workers never even made it home from responding to Hurricane Harvey before turning around and deploying to Florida.
Sean Gallagher is with the Florida Forest Service, which is coordinating the staging operation. He says the convention center’s loading dock doors will close as soon as the winds in Orlando rise to hurricane levels to protect the vehicles and responders inside and won’t open again until the winds die down.
Then, rapid response teams will rush into the most devastated areas to do recognizance and triage where the rescue operations are most needed.
Until then, they are crammed in the convention center’s side rooms and cots. The convention center has pallets of 13,000 ready-to-eat meals.
Aaron Janssen is a helicopter mechanic with a medical aviation company. He’s sleeping in a tent next to his helicopter, with his wife and 9-year-old Chihuahua named Marley. He didn’t want to leave them behind at their Orlando home while he worked.
Marley spent the day chasing a pigeon around the hangar.
“She’s loving it,” he said. “She hadn’t figured out yet that she’s never going to catch that pigeon.”
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2 p.m.
Miami Beach officials say emergency services have been suspended until winds drop below 40 mph (64 kph), and no one will be allowed into the city until roads have been cleared. The city would continue a mandatory 8 p.m. curfew for the next two nights.
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2 p.m.
Actor Robert De Niro says a resort development company he is involved with on Barbuda will work with local officials to help with reconstruction on the island devastated by Hurricane Irma.
De Niro says in a statement that he was “beyond saddened to learn of the devastation” in Barbuda.
The actor is a principal in the Paradise Found Nobu Resort planned for Barbuda. Construction has not yet started on the project.
He said the company will work with local officials to “to successfully rebuild what nature has taken away from us.”
Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne says 90 percent of the structures and vehicles on the small island were destroyed in the storm. A 2-year-old boy was killed. About 1,400 people live on the island and most have now been evacuated to Antigua.
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2 p.m.
The State Department says it and the Defense Department are resuming their evacuation of U.S. citizens from Sint Maarten via a military flight to Puerto Rico.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert says the department is communicating with Americans there through social media, radio, and by phone.
The department also is coordinating with AirBnB to identify and communicate with U.S. citizens not located at hotels who may have rented residences on the island.
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2 p.m.
Vice President Mike Pence says Hurricane Irma is a “storm of historic, epic proportions.”
Pence spoke Sunday afternoon while visiting the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington. He says that President Donald Trump has been monitoring the storm “24/7.”
Pence says “the people of Florida need to know that our hearts and our prayers and all of our efforts are with them and will be with them until this storm passes.”
Pence says Irma “continues to be a very dangerous storm” and he urged people to “heed the warnings of local officials” to either shelter in place or evacuate, depending on where they are.
He says Irma is a “very dangerous storm” and a “life-threatening storm.”
Pence says “it’s enormously important that every American in the path of this storm take the warnings of state and local officials to heart.”
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1:30 p.m.
Florida Power & Light says it will be weeks, not days, before electricity is fully restored because of the damage being done by Hurricane Irma.
Spokesman Rob Gould said Sunday that an estimated 3.4 million homes and businesses will lose power once the worst of Irma reaches the Florida mainland. He expects thousands of miles (kilometers) of poles and lines will need to be replaced, particularly on the Gulf coast. As of Sunday afternoon, about 1.5 million customers were without power.
He said 17,000 restoration workers from as far away as California and Massachusetts are already stationed around the state, but it will take time to rebuild the system.
The utility covers much of the state, including most cities on the Atlantic coast and the Gulf coast south of Tampa. It does not cover Tampa and St. Petersburg, two major cities in Irma’s forecast path.
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1:30 p.m.
At least 25 people in one Florida county have been arrested for violating a curfew imposed as Hurricane Irma approached the state.
Palm Beach County authorities say the arrests were made after a 3 p.m. Saturday curfew was imposed. The misdemeanor charge can carry a fine of up to $500 and potentially 60 days in jail.
Officials announced the curfew as a safety measure and to prevent looting and other crimes. They say some of those arrested could face other charges, such as drug possession or drunken driving.
The curfew will be lifted after a storm damage assessment is done.
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1:30 p.m.
A meteorologist calculates that Hurricane Irma will dump about 10 trillion gallons (38 trillion liters) of rain on Florida over a day-and-a-half time period. That’s about 500,000 gallons (1.9 trillion liters) for every Florida resident.
Private meteorologist Ryan Maue of WeatherBell Analytics based his calculations on weather service forecasts. He also calculates it will dump 6 trillion gallons (23 trillion liters) on Georgia.
By comparison, Hurricane Harvey, which stalled over the Texas coast, dumped about 20 trillion gallons (76 trillion liters) on Texas and 7 trillion gallons (26 trillion liters) of rain on Louisiana in about five days. One place around Houston got more than 50 inches (130 centimeters) of rain. Irma is expected to crawl steadily through the Sunshine State.
The National Hurricane Center projects 15 to 20 inches (38 to 50 centimeters) of rain with spots up to 25 inches (64 centimeters) for the Florida Keys. Western Florida is forecast to get 10 to 15 inches of rain (25 to 38 centimeters), with as much as 20 inches (50 centimeters) in spots. The rest of Florida and southeastern Georgia is projected to get 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 centimeters) of rain, with isolated outbursts up to 16 inches (40 centimeters).
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1:30 p.m.
Emergency workers in inflatable boats are navigating flooded streets along Havana’s coast, where thousands of people left their homes for safer ground before Hurricane Irma hit Cuba.
Seawater has penetrated as much as 1,600 feet (500 meters) inland in parts of the city. Trees are toppled, roofs have been torn off, cement water tanks have fallen from roofs to the ground and electrical lines are down.
Elena Villar is a Havana resident whose home of 30 years filled with more than 6 feet (2 meters) of water.
She was on the edge of tears Sunday as she said: “I have lost everything.”
Villar and her mother spent the night huddling in the lobby of a higher building nearby as the storm raked the city.
In her words: “I have never seen a disaster like this.”
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1:30 p.m.
Thanks to Hurricane Irma, Savannah, Georgia, has been evacuated for the second time in less than a year. Atlanta, meanwhile, is under a tropical-storm warning for the first time ever.
Nearly all of Georgia was under some type of severe-weather warning Sunday as Irma churned near Florida. The National Hurricane Center predicted the storm’s center to cross Monday into southwest Georgia, where a hurricane warning was issued for communities including Albany and Valdosta.
Portions of western Alabama and coastal South Carolina were also under tropical-storm warnings.
The National Weather Service confirmed it had never before issued a tropical-storm warning for Atlanta, where wind gusts could reach 55 mph (88 kph). That’s nothing new to Savannah and the rest of coastal Georgia, which evacuated last October for Hurricane Matthew.
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1:10 p.m.
The White House says President Donald Trump has received a “comprehensive update” on Hurricane Irma.
Irma plowed into the Florida Keys on Sunday and was forecast to march up the state’s west coast.
Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and several Cabinet members participated in the briefing from Camp David — the presidential retreat where Trump has spent the weekend monitoring the storm.
Other administration officials joined in from the White House or Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington.
Pence and several Cabinet secretaries are planning to visit FEMA headquarters later Sunday.
The White House says Trump has spoken with the governors of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. Irma could affect all four states.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott says he also spoke with Trump on Sunday.
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1:05 p.m.
Deputies shot and wounded a burglar and arrested his accomplice at a Florida home as Hurricane Irma blew in.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Sunday that the homeowners in Weston were out of town but saw the burglars remotely inside the house through a home surveillance system.
Deputies responded shortly before 3 a.m. and one of the two juvenile males was shot outside the home. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. The other person was arrested.
Their names were not immediately released.
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12:55 p.m.
High winds are impeding Miami authorities’ ability to reach a construction crane toppled by Hurricane Irma.
The crane fell onto a high-rise building that’s under construction. It’s in a bayfront area filled with hotels and high-rise condo and office buildings, near AmericanAirlines Arena.
Miami-Dade County Director of Communications Mike Hernandez said emergency personnel couldn’t immediately respond to the scene because of high winds. Authorities urged people to avoid the area after the Sunday morning collapse. It wasn’t clear if there were any injuries.
Miami City Manager Daniel Alfonso said the approximately two-dozen other cranes in the city are still upright and built to withstand significant wind gusts.
The tower cranes working on construction sites throughout the city were a concern ahead of Irma. Moving the massive equipment, weighing up to 30,000 pounds, is a slow process that would have taken about two weeks, according to city officials.
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12:20 p.m.
Florida sheriff’s deputies rescued a couple who tried to ride out Hurricane Irma on a small sailboat.
Christine Weiss of the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said a passer-by noticed the couple was in trouble Sunday. It happened just off Jensen Beach, which is on the Atlantic Coast north of Palm Beach.
Video shows a Martin County patrol boat manned by deputies John Howell and James Holloran and Detective Mathew Fritchie pulling up next to the sailboat.
The task of helping the couple onto their boat was precarious as both boats bobbed in choppy water. Deputies then took them to shore.
The names of the couple were not released. They were not injured.
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12:10 p.m.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte says the death toll caused by Hurricane Irma on the Caribbean territory of St. Maarten has risen to four.
Rutte said Sunday, “unfortunately there are more victims to mourn” after the bodies of two people washed up on the island. He says the identities of the victims are not yet known.
One of the four people listed as victims by the Dutch authorities died of natural causes as the Category 5 hurricane lashed St. Maarten, badly damaging or destroying 70 percent of homes on the Dutch part of the Caribbean island.
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11:40 a.m.
Some Miami Police officers remembered to pack an essential in their hurricane survival pack: Cuban coffee known as cafecito.
The department tweeted a picture showing a coffee maker atop a camp stove. It read: “As our officers ride out the storm, some have brought the (hashtag) Miami essentials to help them get through the night.”
The strongly caffeinated brew is a staple in Miami.
Former FEMA administrator Craig Fugate said this week he’d check Cuban coffee stands to gauge Irma’s impacts on Miami.
Fugate is known for creating the so-called “Waffle House Index.” Fugate used the Southern restaurant chain as a benchmark for how quickly local communities could rebound from hurricanes.
Waffle House are known for being open most of the time. Under the index, a closed Waffle House was a bad sign. There are no Waffle Houses in Miami, so Fugate suggested an alternative.
“Cuban coffee stands – if those are closed, it is bad,” he told AP.
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11:25 a.m.
President Donald Trump has spoken with the governors of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee as Hurricane Irma moves north.
All four states could be affected by the storm, which struck the Florida Keys on Sunday.
The White House says Trump spoke with the officials Sunday from the Camp David presidential retreat, where he was spending the weekend.
Trump has been in regular contract with Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Sen. Marco Rubio over the past week. Chief of staff John Kelly spoke Sunday with Florida Sen. Bill Nelson.
Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were scheduled to receive an updated Irma briefing on Sunday.
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11:15 a.m.
As Hurricane Irma evacuees fill up Atlanta hotels and shelters, folks are getting creative to offer them a hand.
About 100 of America’s top chefs who had gathered for their annual summit changed gears. They pivoted their planned Monday agenda on “heritage grains” and “how to cut food waste.” Now, instead, the chefs will prepare a gourmet feast for Irma refugees and serve it at a church.
Hotels were full Sunday morning. At the luxury Georgian Terrace Hotel, staff were flexible with rules to accommodate evacuees. Guests walked pit bulls through the lobby. Large families pulled roller bags and clutched blankets as they squeezed into small rooms without enough beds.
A block away, a church offered free hugs for evacuees.
And a chalkboard sign outside a restaurant offered a discount: “30% OFF Food with FLORIDA ID for Hurricane evacuees.”
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11:05 a.m.
The National Hurricane Center says Category 4 Hurricane Irma is now “headed for the southwest Florida coast” as winds continue to pick up speed in all of South Florida.
Irma continues to be armed with 130 mph winds as its large eye passes north of the Keys.
Storm surge is forecast for 10 to 15 feet in southwestern Florida.
Hurricane-force winds are continuing throughout southern Florida, including the Keys. The hurricane center warns that winds affecting upper floors of high-rise building will be much stronger than at ground level.
The hurricane center also emphasizes that Irma will bring life-threatening wind to much of Florida regardless of the exact track of its center.
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10:55 a.m.
Puerto Rico’s governor says there will be no classes on Monday because hundreds of schools still do not have power or water after the island took a hit from Hurricane Irma.
Ricardo Rossello said Sunday that more than 600 schools don’t have power and more than 400 don’t have water. Another nearly 400 schools don’t have either, and dozens are flooded.
Nearly 600,000 people in the U.S. territory remain without power, representing 40 percent of customers of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.
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10:50 a.m.
The National Weather Service says that a crane has collapsed in Miami as strong wind from Hurricane Irma blows in.
It’s one of two-dozen in the city.
The weather service’s Miami office said in a Tweet that one of its employees witnessed the crane boom and counterweight collapse in downtown Miami. The employee captured video of the collapse.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the collapse caused damage or injuries.
The cranes have been a concern.
Construction sites across Irma’s potential path in Florida were locked down to remove or secure building materials, tools and debris that could be flung by Irma’s winds.
But the horizontal arms of the tall tower cranes remained loose despite the potential danger of collapse. According to city officials, it would have taken about two weeks to move the cranes and there wasn’t enough time.
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10:40 a.m.
Hurricane Irma’s large eye is beginning to move slowly away from the Florida Keys as it continues north with 130 mph (215 kph) winds.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami reported that the center of core of Irma is about 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Key West.
Irma is so wide that a gust of 93 mph (150 kph) was measured near Key Largo at the other end of the Florida Keys.
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10:35 a.m.
A Florida Keys refuge for a unique subspecies of deer is in the crosshairs of Hurricane Irma.
The Florida Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key is about 10 miles from where the storm made landfall Sunday morning.
It’s the only place in world where you find Key deer, a unique subspecies of white-tailed deer about 3 feet tall at the shoulder — the size of a large dog.
The herd faced a potential extinction event last year when the first screwworm infestation in the U.S. in 30 years. Fewer than 1,000 of the endangered deer remain, and the parasites that eat the flesh of living mammals killed 135 Key deer before state and federal agriculture authorities stopped the infestation earlier this year.
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10:30 a.m.
France’s Interior Minister expressed relief that Hurricane Jose spared French Caribbean islands St. Martin and St. Barts further devastation.
Gerard Collomb, speaking at a press conference in Paris Sunday, said that Jose passed miles away.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for France’s government defended its handling of the hurricane crisis in St. Martin and St. Barts amid criticism that many in the local population felt abandoned by authorities.
Christophe Castaner, speaking in an interview with Europe1-CNews-Les Echos on Sunday, said he “perfectly (understood) the anger” of residents after Hurricane Irma tore through the French Caribbean islands, killing several people, destroying houses and cutting off the water supply. Some shops were subsequently looted by locals.
But he insisted the means deployed by the government were robust — with emergency help given “first priority.”
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10:25 a.m.
Florida officials say 127,000 people across the state have taken refuge in more than 500 shelters as Hurricane Irma takes aim at the state.
The state Division of Emergency Management did not specify which shelters had the most people.
Meanwhile, utility officials were warning that the storm could leave millions without power by the time it finishes moving through the state. Already, more than 1.3 million Florida customers were in the dark on Sunday morning as the hurricane made landfall in the Florida Keys.
Florida Power & Light, the state’s largest utility, is reporting on Sunday that many people living in the three populous south Florida counties of Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach are without power. State officials say another 64,000 customers who rely on smaller utilities have also lost electricity.
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11:05 a.m.
The National Hurricane Center says Category 4 Hurricane Irma is now “headed for the southwest Florida coast” as winds continue to pick up speed in all of South Florida.
Irma continues to be armed with 130 mph winds as its large eye passes north of the Keys.
Storm surge is forecast for 10 to 15 feet in southwestern Florida.
Hurricane-force winds are continuing throughout southern Florida, including the Keys. The hurricane center warns that winds affecting upper floors of high-rise building will be much stronger than at ground level.
The hurricane center also emphasizes that Irma will bring life-threatening wind to much of Florida regardless of the exact track of its center.
10:55 a.m.
Puerto Rico’s governor says there will be no classes on Monday because hundreds of schools still do not have power or water after the island took a hit from Hurricane Irma.
Ricardo Rossello said Sunday that more than 600 schools don’t have power and more than 400 don’t have water. Another nearly 400 schools don’t have either, and dozens are flooded.
Nearly 600,000 people in the U.S. territory remain without power, representing 40 percent of customers of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.
10:50 a.m.
The National Weather Service says that a crane has collapsed in Miami as strong wind from Hurricane Irma blows in.
It’s one of two-dozen in the city.
The weather service’s Miami office said in a Tweet that one of its employees witnessed the crane boom and counterweight collapse in downtown Miami. The employee captured video of the collapse.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the collapse caused damage or injuries.
The cranes have been a concern.
Construction sites across Irma’s potential path in Florida were locked down to remove or secure building materials, tools and debris that could be flung by Irma’s winds.
But the horizontal arms of the tall tower cranes remained loose despite the potential danger of collapse. According to city officials, it would have taken about two weeks to move the cranes and there wasn’t enough time.
10:40 a.m.
Hurricane Irma’s large eye is beginning to move slowly away from the Florida Keys as it continues north with 130 mph (215 kph) winds.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami reported that the center of core of Irma is about 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Key West.
Irma is so wide that a gust of 93 mph (150 kph) was measured near Key Largo at the other end of the Florida Keys.
