Life and death of Irma: 2 weeks of fury and devastation end - Phys.org
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Life and death of Irma: 2 weeks of fury and
devastation end
14 September 2017, by Seth Borenstein
Wednesday, when he declared the storm over.
Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil
Klotzbach put it simpler: "Irma was a beast."
Irma generated as much accumulated energy in a
dozen days as an entire six-month hurricane
season would in an average year, Klotzbach
calculated.
Just 30 hours after it became a tropical storm on
Aug. 30, Irma was a major Category 3 hurricane.
By Sept. 4 it had intensified into a Category 4, with
130 mph (210 kph) winds, and it wasn't near done.
Tommy Nevitt carries Miranda Abbott, 6, through
floodwater caused by Hurricane Irma on the west side of
Jacksonville, Fla., Monday, Sept. 11 2017. (Dede
Smith/The Florida Times-Union via AP)
Irma, which flattened some Caribbean islands and
enveloped nearly all of Florida in its fury, no longer
exists. The open Atlantic's most powerful hurricane
on record finally sputtered out as an ordinary
rainstorm over Ohio and Indiana.
Irma's confirmed death toll is 61 and still rising, 38
in the Caribbean and 23 in the United States. In
the U.S. alone, nearly 7 million people were told to
A woman with her two children walk past debris left by
evacuate, and 13 million Floridians were left Hurricane Irma in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S.
without power in hot steamy weather. Virgin Islands, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017. The storm
ravaged such lush resort islands as St. Martin, St. Barts,
This storm grew so immensely powerful over St. Thomas, Barbuda and Anguilla. (AP Photo/Ricardo
warmer-than-normal Atlantic water that it Arduengo)
devastated the first islands in its path. Its
gargantuan size—two Hurricane Andrews could fit
inside it—spread so much fear that people all over
the Florida peninsula upended their lives to flee. It became a Category 5 storm the next day with top
winds of 185 mph (nearly 300 kph), the highest
"This was a large, extremely dangerous ever recorded in the open Atlantic. Only one storm
catastrophic hurricane," National Hurricane Center whirled faster—Hurricane Allen reached 190 mph
spokesman and meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said (305 kph) in 1980 over the normally warm Gulf of
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Mexico—but Irma held its ferociously high speeds for
37 hours, a new global record for tropical cyclones.
It beat Typhoon Haiyan, which also reached 185 Irma was still a Category 5 when it raked Cuba's
mph (nearly 300 kph) before killing more than 6,000 coast, the first hurricane that size to hit the storm-
people in the Philippines. Irma ultimately spent 78 prone island since 1924. At least 10 people died
hours as a Category 5, the longest in 85 years for there, despite massive evacuations. And by moving
Atlantic hurricanes. briefly over land, it may have spared Florida a
tougher punch.
Irma's entire path, from its birth off Africa to its
death over the Ohio Valley, stayed within the cone More importantly, the system slowed, delaying its
of the probable track forecast by the National turn north and steering its center over Florida's
Hurricane Center. west coast, which is less populated and less
densely developed than the east. It also allowed
Irma claimed its first victim when it was still far off, dry air and high winds from the southwest to flow
sending a "monster wave" to drown a teen-aged into Irma, taking a bite out of the storm and even
surfer in Barbados. Then it hit the Leeward Islands tearing the southwest eyewall apart for a while.
in full fury, sweeping a 2-year-old boy to his death
after tearing the roof from his home. Irma was more vulnerable, but by no means weak.
A Category 4 storm with 130 mph (210 kph) winds
Irma bullied through much of the when it slammed into Cudjoe Key, it tied for
Caribbean—Antigua, St. Martin, St. Barts, Anguilla, history's seventh strongest hurricane to make U.S.
the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Turks and landfall, based on its central pressure. With
Caicos, the Bahamas. It narrowly skirted Puerto Harvey's swamping of Texas, this is the first year
Rico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It turned two Category 4 storms hit the United States.
lush tropical playgrounds into blasted-out
landscapes, littered with splintered lumber, The Keys were devastated. Federal officials
crumpled sheet metal and shattered lives. In St. estimated that a quarter of the homes were
Martin, 15 people were killed. destroyed, and hardly any escaped damage. Roofs
seemed peeled off by can-openers; power poles
were nowhere to be seen.
View of the partially buildings destroyed by Irma during
the visit of France's President Emmanuel Macron in the
French Caribbean islands of St. Martin, Tuesday, Sept. Juan Antonio Higuey shows his destroyed home at Cold
12, 2017. Macron is in the French-Dutch island of St. Bay community after the passage of Hurricane Irma, in
Martin, where 10 people were killed on the French side St. Martin, Monday, September 11, 2017. Irma cut a path
and four on the Dutch. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, Pool) of devastation across the northern Caribbean, leaving
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thousands homeless after destroying buildings and
uprooting trees. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)
Irma was back over water as it closed in on
mainland Florida, weakening still but spreading
much wider—to more than 400 miles (640
kilometers) in girth—whipping the entire peninsula
with winds of 39 mph (62 kph) or more. It pushed
its highest storm surge, 10 feet (more than 3
meters), onto Florida's southwestern coast, while
causing some of its worst flooding in northeast
Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, far from
Irma's center.
Irma's second U.S. landfall was on Marco Island,
near where Wilma hit in 2005. By then, Irma was a
still-major Category 3, with 115 mph (185 kph) This Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017 photo shows storm
winds, but weakening fast. The worst of its fury damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma on the British
somehow missed the Tampa Bay area, where island of Anguilla. Irma weakened to Category 3 storm
homes were not nearly as flooded as those in with 125 mph winds on Saturday, but will likely regain
strength before slamming Florida. (Vanessa C Thompson
faraway Jacksonville. Irma then sloshed through
via AP)
Georgia and Alabama as a tropical storm, blowing
down tall trees and power lines, before dissipating
Tuesday over the nation's interior.
In this undated photo provided on Tuesday, Sept. 12,
2017 by the British Ministry of Defence, Royal Marines
deliver aid and provide support to the islanders of Jost
Van Dkye, British Virgin Islands. The team helped to
deliver essential aid utilising a small boat to support this
In this undated photo provided on Sunday Sept. 10, isolated community of just 300 people. Britain sent a
2017, by the British Ministry of Defence, cars that have navy ship and almost 500 troops to the British Virgin
been turned to wrecks by Hurricane Irma on the British Islands, Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos islands.
Virgin Islands. The wild isolation that made St. Barts, St. (MOD via AP)
Martin, Anguilla and the Virgin Islands vacation paradises
has turned them into cutoff, chaotic nightmares in the
wake of Hurricane Irma, which left 22 people dead,
mostly in the Leeward Islands. (MOD via AP)
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Lucita Leonce 71, complains in front of her home flooded This Sept. 10, 2017, file photo shows people walking on
by heavy rains brought on by Hurricane Irma, in Fort- Old Tampa Bay, in Tampa, Fla. Hurricane Irma's
Liberte, Haiti, Friday Sept. 8, 2017. Irma rolled past the devastating storm surge came with weird twists that
Dominican Republic and Haiti and battered the Turks and scientists attribute to the storm's girth, path and some
Caicos Islands early Friday with waves as high as 20 feet geographic quirks. They can explain why the highest
(6 meters). ( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) water levels observed from Irma were in faraway corners,
while places closer to the eye experienced a rare reverse
surge. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)
Locals affected by Hurricane Irma line up to collect
drinking water in Isabela de Sagua, Cuba, Monday, Sept.
11, 2017. The powerful storm ripped roofs off houses, A house slides into the Atlantic Ocean in the aftermath of
collapsed buildings and flooded hundreds of thousands Hurricane Irma in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., Monday,
of coastline after cutting a trail of destruction across the Sept. 11, 2017. (Gary Lloyd McCullough/The Florida
Caribbean. Cuban officials warned residents to watch for Times-Union via AP)
even more flooding over the next few days. (AP
Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
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People move through flooded streets in Havana after the
passage of Hurricane Irma, in Cuba, Sunday, Sept. 10,
2017. The powerful storm ripped roofs off houses,
collapsed buildings and flooded hundreds of miles of
coastline after cutting a trail of destruction across the
Caribbean. Cuban officials warned residents to watch for
even more flooding over the next few days. (AP
Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
© 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
APA citation: Life and death of Irma: 2 weeks of fury and devastation end (2017, September 14)
retrieved 3 July 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2017-09-irma-life-demise-weeks-destruction.html
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