Brevard County is under yet another tornado warning as Hurricane Irma starts impacting Florida, according to the National Weather Service in Melbourne.
The weather service expanded the range of the latest warning into include much of central and southern Brevard, including Melbourne, Palm Bay and beachside cities and towns.
More than 250,000 county residents fall under the new warning, which will remain in effect until 12 p.m.
Another tornado warning has been issued, this time for southern Brevard County, until 11:30 a.m.
The affected area is just south of Melbourne.
Original story:
A tornado warning covering Palm Bay and West Melbourne was cancelled early after the storm band that prompted the warning grew weak, National Weather Service officials reported. It was the second tornado warning issued for the south Brevard County area.
Residents were urged to take cover before weather officials cancelled the warning. "The storm which prompted the warning has weakened below severe limits, and no longer appears capable of producing a tornado. Therefore the warning will be allowed to expire. However heavy rain and strong winds will continue as Hurricane Irma lifts north from the Florida Keys," the weather service reported.
The warning was originally set to expire at 9:45 a.m.
"It was radar indicated," said Peggy Glitto, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Melbourne, of the storm formation that set off the warning. "We should begin seeing some of the heavy bands (from Hurricane Irma) coming up."
A tornado warning means that conditions indicate a tornado or funnel cloud may be in the affected area. Brevard County remains under a tornado watch until 12 p.m.
The weather service also reports wind gusts of up to 45 mph. Tropical storm winds are expected to arrive in Brevard sometime around 2 p.m. and then spread toward the north end.
Around 9 a.m. Sunday residents along Three Oaks Parkway in south Lee County finally had their first tangible smack from Hurricane Irma when their power went out.
Earlier, as the first winds from Hurricane Irma brushed through the southern tip of Florida power companies supplying energy to the area reported about 3,000 residents how lost their power.
Ximena Hurtado, who lives in the Lakes Community just off Three Oaks near Alico Road, reported via text message that her family, including her husband, his brother, and her daughter, was now without power.
Farther down Three Oaks, in the Rookery Point community in Estero, Len Vanover reported lights flickering and the cable sporadic but that power was still on.
"It's just like a regular storm," he said.
In North Fort Myers, Rhonda GB reported her power went out around 10 a.m.
Karen Ryan, a spokeswoman for the Lee County Electric Cooperative, said about 1,300 residents had been affected as of 7 a.m.
"Most on our south system," she said. LCEC serves areas in Lee and Collier counties from Marco Island and Everglades City to Cape Coral and parts of North Fort Myers.
As of 8 .m. LCEC showed the Naples area with the most outages with 875, 205 in Cape Coral, 95 in North Fort Myers, 90 in Marco Island, 35 in Lehigh Acres and Immokalee, 18 in Sanibel and 2 on Pine Island.
Once Irma's effects have dissipated, LCEC said the order of power priority would be: Buildings housing emergency responders, like fire stations, police stations; City and county emergency operations centers; Area hospitals and shelters, housing those escaping from the storm; LCEC substations, providing power; Residences, especially those areas experiencing the highest outages; The most remote customers, where there aren’t many homes.
FPL was reporting a like number of outages in the service area it overs in Southwest Florida.
Here’s a 9 a.m. update for Florida’s west coast:
Manatee County: Customers: 184,900; Without power: 60; Power restored: 150; Sarasota County: Customers: 263,800; Without power: 350; Power restored: 1,840; De Soto County: Customers: 16,600; Without power: 130; Power restored: 230; Charlotte County; Customers: 114,100; Without power: 230; Power restored: 330; Lee County: Customers: 259,900; Without power: 1,350; Power restored: 1,760;Collier County: Customers: 210,700; Without power: 3,010; Power restored: 4,020; Monroe County: Customers: 90; Without power: 90; Power restored: 0
FPL has about 1 million customer accounts, or 2 million people, in Manatee, Sarasota, De Soto, Charlotte, Lee, Collier, and Monroe counties, according to its website.
Radar over South Florida (Photo: National Weather Service)
Company officials estimate about 6 million people, representing 3.4 million customer accounts, will lose power in the storm’s wake. A majority will be on the west coast if Irma continues on her current track.
The company, which serves five million accounts representing 10 million people in 35 counties, expects to perform major restoration efforts on Florida’s east coast and a rebuild of its system on the west coast, which Irma is expected to destroy.
Restoration can take anywhere from hours to days, while a rebuild could takes weeks or more, company representatives said.
The company plans to deploy about 16,000 utility workers from 29 different states to begin restoration efforts once conditions are safe.
Staging areas are shifting west with Irma to be ready to work when the storm passes.
The workers, employed by other utilities companies throughout the U.S., can begin restoration work once winds drop to 35 mph and flood waters recede.
As Category 4 Hurricane Irma commands most of the media attention this week, two other hurricanes -- Jose and Katia -- have been gathering strength as they threaten landfall.
Irma has been slamming Caribbean islands and was projected to reach Florida over the weekend. But Hurricane Jose has officially been classified a Category 3 storm, and Hurricane Katia was set to slam into Mexico early Saturday.
Jose is reportedly following a path similar to Irma's and could potentially hit the same Caribbean islands that were devastated by Irma days ago, the National Hurricane Center said. Antigua and Barbuda were alerted of possible “life-threatening flooding" due to Jose.
The center previously said Jose had sustained wind speeds of 60 mph, but recently became “a little bit stronger” – with winds reaching 125 mph as of Friday morning.
Jose was roughly 480 miles east-southeast of the northern Leeward Islands – which Irma already hit earlier this week.
Meantime, Hurricane Katia was threatening to make landfall early Saturday in the state of Veracruz in Mexico.
Katia, classified as strong Category 2 hurricane and edging toward Category 3 status, has sustained winds of 90 mph, according to a Friday morning advisory. Hurricane warnings suggest rainfall from Katia could result in “life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, especially in areas of mountainous terrain," the National Hurricane Center said.
Katia is currently about 165 miles from Tampico, Mexico.
Mexico was hit late Thursday by a powerful 8.1-magnitude earthquake, leaving at least 15 people dead and triggering tsunami waves, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Hurricane Irma is currently wreaking havoc in the Caribbean, and it’s not pardoning properties owned by the commander in chief.
One of Donald Trump’s vacation homes, known as Le Chateau des Palmiers, was in the direct path of the category 5 hurricane as it hit the island of St. Martin Wednesday morning, the Washington Post reports.
The state of the property, which is currently listed for sale with Sotheby’s International Realty for $16.9 million after being slashed from the original $28 million asking price earlier this summer, is currently unknown. However, a government official confirms even the island’s strongest structures were devastated by the storm.
“We know that the four most solid buildings on the island have been destroyed, which means that more rustic structures have probably been completely or partially destroyed,” French Interior Minister Gerard Collomba told AFP.
The 5-bedroom beachfront villa located on Plum Bay at the western point of the island was reportedly purchased by the Trump family in 2013, after being listed for $19.7 million and has since been rented out for luxury vacations.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization, Amanda Miller, told the Post, “All of the proper precautions and protections have been implemented and right now we are just praying for all those in the path of Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean and beyond.”
Irma is barreling towards Florida, where the president owns several more properties including the golf resort Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. It’s expected to make landfall there this weekend.
Miller adds of the threat to Trump’s mainland properties, “The safety and security of our guests, members and colleagues is our top priority and we are closely monitoring Hurricane Irma. Our teams at the Trump properties in Florida are taking all of the proper precautions and following local and Florida state advisories very closely to ensure that everyone is kept safe and secure. We continue to send our thoughts and prayers to victims of Hurricane Harvey and are praying for those that are in the path of Hurricane Irma.”
Trump tweeted on Wednesday, “Watching Hurricane closely. My team, which has done, and is doing, such a good job in Texas, is already in Florida. No rest for the weary!” Adding in a separate tweet, “Hurricane looks like largest ever recorded in the Atlantic!”
France's Interior minister says Hurricane Irma has killed at least eight people and left 23 injured on French Caribbean island territories. The Associated Press reports:
Updated 2:14 a.m. ET ThursdaySpeaking on French radio France Info, Gerard Collomb said the death toll in Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthelemy could be higher because rescue teams have yet to finish their inspection of the islands. Collomb said Thursday: "The reconnaissance will really start at daybreak."
The National Hurricane Center says the dangerous core of the storm will move away from Puerto Rico Thursday morning and is expected to pass just north of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Irma is expected to be near the Turks and Caicos and southeastern Bahamas by Thursday evening.
Carving its way through the Caribbean, the monstrous Category 5 hurricane called Irma, with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph, demolished homes and killed one person on Barbuda and ripped apart structures in St. Martin as it headed westward toward the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Antigua's Prime Minister Gaston Browne says nearly every building on the country's island of Barbuda had been damaged after the storm hit early Wednesday. He estimates 60 percent of the inhabitants are homeless. He says a 2-year-old child was killed.
"It is just really a horrendous situation," he said after returning from an aerial inspection. He said roads and telecommunications systems have been destroyed, according to The Associated Press.
Earlier, referring to the country's other island of Antigua, Browne posted a message of relief to his Facebook page.
"Thank God for his mercies and blessings. He has protected and spared us from the worst of Irma. Thank God that there are no ... hurricane casualties reported to this time," he wrote.
In a subsequent statement, Browne said: "The forecast was that Antigua would be devastated, our infrastructure demolished, people killed and our economy destroyed. In the light of day, the picture is very different."
St. Martin/Sint Marteen, Anguilla, St. Barts
Video footage coming in from the half-French, half-Dutch island of St. Martin/Sint Maarten has painted a much different picture. One video, apparently shot from a second-story balcony, showed dozens of yachts smashed against a marina bulkhead and several feet of water inundating parked cars.
Dutch Interior Minister Ronald Plasterk says he believes the level of destruction on the island is "enormous."
Speaking to reporters in The Hague, Netherlands, Plasterk said the damage on the island "is so major that we don't yet have a full picture, also because contact is difficult at the moment."
The hurricane was so strong as it passed that it registered on a St. Martin seismometer that is designed to record earthquakes.
The islands of the eastern Caribbean are geographically varied — some such as Anguilla are flat and low-lying, while others such as Hispaniola are mountainous. Thus, they are likely to fare differently in the storm. But perhaps even more important is which side of the storm's path they fall on, with those along the leading northwestern side of Irma likely to get the brunt of its fierce winds. Islands to the south of its path should experience less severe winds but could still be subject to massive rainfall.
Directly southeast of St. Martin, video posted to social media from another French island, St. Barthelemy, also known as St. Barts, showed a river of water and floating debris running through a street.
In Paris, the French government said that it had delivered water and food to both St. Martin and St. Barts and that emergency response teams were being dispatched. Power was reportedly out on both islands, but no casualties were immediately reported. The British government said it would dispatch a Royal Navy Britain ship with humanitarian assistance to the region.
French President Emmanuel Macron says "the toll will be harsh and cruel" on St. Martin and St. Barts and that "material damage on both islands is considerable."
The Netherlands' Ambassador to the United Nations Karel van Oosterom said in addition to Sint Marteen, the islands of Sint Eustatius and Saba were also affected. "First information indicates that a lot of damage has been done but communication is still extremely difficult," he said, according to AP.
Virgin Islands
Irma raked the British Virgin Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on its way to a likely landfall in Florida later this week or early next week, forecasters say. As of Wednesday afternoon, the storm had passed over the British Virgin Islands, with gusts of nearly 90 mph and offshore waves of 30 feet.
A rescue team from the local emergency management agency inspects flooded areas late Wednesday in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, after the passing of Hurricane Irma. The category 5 storm is expected to make landfall in Florida by the weekend.
Jose Jimenez/Getty Images
The Associated Press interviewed Laura Strickling, a resident of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, who said she and her family spent 12 hours waiting out the storm in a boarded-up apartment with no electricity.
"They emerged to find the lush island in tatters, with many of their neighbors' homes damaged and the once-dense vegetation largely gone.
"There are no leaves. It is crazy. One of the things we loved about St. Thomas is that it was so green. And it's gone," said Strickling, who moved to the island with her husband three years ago from Washington, D.C. "It will take years for this community to get back on its feet."
A woman looks at heavy surf as Hurricane Irma approaches Puerto Rico in Luquillo on Wednesday.
Ricardo Arduengo/AFP/Getty Images
Puerto Rico
By evening, the storm was passing to the north of Puerto Rico, and the island's emergency management agency said hundreds of thousands of residents were without power and tens of thousands without water.
Ricardo Rosselló, the governor of the island of some 3.4 million people, had urged residents to seek shelter in one of the island's more than 450 hurricane shelters.
Lauren Weisenthal, 38, a transplanted New Yorker who moved to San Juan just six months ago, tells NPR that she and her husband, Brian, two dogs and a cat are situated high up on the bluffs surrounding the old city.
"We feel as prepared as we can be," Weisenthal said. "We are in a house that is 100 years old; it weathered Hurricane Hugo [in 1989] and we're feeling confident."
But, she says, people in other parts of the city and in rural areas prone to flooding are more nervous.
"Those living closer to the water are definitely more anxious, especially older people who have been through this before," she says.
Of most concern is the power situation, Weisenthal tells NPR. "We are concerned about that, but because we are in the old city, the center of government and tourism, we might get power back before the rest of the city."
"But we talk to people in some rural areas that are expecting electricity to be out for months," she says.
Loren Ann Mayo, an American tourist on the French island of Guadeloupe, just south of Irma's path, told CNN earlier that she was sheltering from the storm in the bathroom of her hotel room.
"The balcony snapped and is now hanging on by one little piece of wire," Mayo said.
