"Florida Declares State of Emergency as Hurricane Irma Strengthens to Category 5"

By Daniel Politi

"Update, Sept. 5, 2017, at 8:32 a.m.: Irma has been declared a Category 5.

"Original post: Looks like the United States will be hit by another, potentially devastating hurricane. Hurricane Irma strengthened to a Category 4 storm on Monday and Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency as the storm could make landfall there as early as this weekend. As of Monday afternoon, Irma was moving toward the Caribbean with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph and several islands in the region, including Puerto Rico, were bracing for the worst.

"Although there is still some optimism that maybe Irma could go out to the ocean before striking the continental United States, that now seems increasingly unlikely. 'There is a small window. If it turns sooner rather than later, we could maybe see the system slide by the East Coast into the ocean, but that window is shutting quickly,' CNN meteorologist Tom Sater said. 'It definitely looks like we will be impacted by a major hurricane that is a Category 3, 4 or 5.' The storm is also likely to strengthen over the next few days and could become the biggest hurricane to hit South Florida since Hurricane Andrew struck as a Category 5 storm in 1992.

"The National Hurricane Center was cautious but cautioned that at the very least the continental United States would feel some effects from Irma. 'There is an increasing chance of seeing some impacts from Irma in the Florida Peninsula and the Florida Keys later this week and this weekend. In addition, rough surf and dangerous marine conditions will begin to affect the southeastern U.S. coast by later this week,' the center said."

Read more: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/09/04/florida_declares_state_of_emergency_as_hurricane_irma_strengthens_to_category.html


How strange for us to have better weather than Texas and Florida.