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A television news crew wades into a flooded street in the Brickel section of Miami as Hurricane Irma passes by Sept. 10, 2017. (Photo: Wilfredo Lee, AP)
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At 5 a.m. ET on Monday the center of the storm was
about 60 miles north of Tampa, the National Hurricane Center in Miami
said. Irma is moving to the northwest at 18 mph with sustained winds of
75 mph.
Irma is expected to weaken further before
becoming a tropical storm between northern Florida and southern Georgia
on later Monday, the center said.
How strong was Irma at landfall?
The
storm hit Cudjoe Key at Category 4 strength, as predicted, with
ferocious 130 mph sustained winds and blasts of even greater violence.
Locations where a Category 4 eye wall hit will see "power outages that
will last weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be
uninhabitable for weeks or months," the hurricane center said. It made
landfall again Sunday afternoon on Marco Island, south of Naples, as a
Category 3 storm.
How bad can the storm surge be?
Storm
surge, the wall of sea water that roars ashore as a hurricane makes
landfall can be "dangerous" and "life-threatening" for people who don't
evacuate. Some areas may experience 15 feet of sea water pushed ashore
from Irma, the hurricane center said. Storm-surge warnings were
issued all the way from the Keys to north of Tampa.