Irma tears through Caribbean islands and heads for Florida

Hurricane Irma devastated the Caribbean island of Barbuda on Wednesday and destroyed houses and knocked out communications on neighbouring Antigua, as it barrelled towards Florida which braced for fierce winds and tidal surges from the most powerful Atlantic hurricane in recorded history. 

While millions of people in Texas began to count the cost of hurricane Harvey, which has left at least 60 dead, Irma gathered strength over the Atlantic, registering as a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 185mph. 

About 90 per cent of buildings and vehicles on Barbuda had been destroyed, according to authorities.

The storm could hit Florida this weekend after raking over Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. “On the forecast track, the extremely dangerous core of Irma will pass just north of Puerto Rico tonight,” the US National Hurricane Centre said on Wednesday.

Rick Scott, Florida’s governor, urged residents to “be aggressive to protect your family”, and has declared an emergency across the state. “This is your responsibility . . . this storm has the possibility of devastating our state.” 

“We’re hoping we won’t receive the full force of the hurricane because I’m not sure that Haiti can take it,” said Hervil Cherubin, country director for Heifer International, a non-profit working with 15,000 farming families across Haiti. Crops were vulnerable, he said, adding: “The country is still working to recover from Hurricane Matthew, which devastated Haiti nearly a year ago. Getting hit again is like adding salt to a wound.”

The storm passed over Barbuda and Antigua overnight, where Gaston Browne, the prime minister, said one person had died. Irma then passed over the islands of Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy, where it caused electricity blackouts and left buildings under water. 

“The dangerousness of this event is like nothing we’ve ever seen,” said Ricardo Rosselló, governor of Puerto Rico. “A lot of infrastructure won’t be able to withstand this kind of force.” 

A direct hit would also strain the economic resources of Puerto Rico, which this year triggered the largest debt restructuring filing by a US state or local government. The cash-strapped island, which is seeking to cut more than $120bn of debt and pension obligations, began to evacuate communities in the north and east with the help of the National Guard and police.

The hurricane centre has declared Irma to be “potentially catastrophic” and US President Donald Trump on Tuesday declared emergencies in Florida, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. A mandatory evacuation order was issued on Wednesday morning for the Florida Keys, a chain of islands at the southern tip of the state that is home to more than 80,000 people, while authorities in Miami Beach said residents and businesses should evacuate to the homes of friends or relatives in safer locations. North Carolina and South Carolina declared precautionary states of emergency.

“My team, which has done, and is doing, such a good job in Texas, is already in Florida,” Mr Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning. “No rest for the weary!”

In Cuba, where the storm is forecast to sweep across the northern coast on Friday night, authorities warned that Irma would be more powerful than the 2004 storm Ivan, which led to the evacuation of 2m people. 

Computer models show the storm reaching the Florida Keys by Friday and then turning sharply north. Beyond that the models are uncertain, suggesting it could either plough up the western coast of Florida and into the gulf, or turn east up the US seaboard or drive straight up Florida.

“It’s really crazy and scary,” said Cristina de Cordoba, a Miami resident, as she monitored the estimated path of Irma on her cell phone. “I’m hoping it will eventually turn west and head into the gulf and not sit over the middle of Florida. If it does, we’re screwed.” 

Irma is expected to steer east of the oil and gas hub of the Gulf of Mexico, potentially sparing refineries, storage terminals and docks damaged by Harvey late last month. Nymex gasoline futures were trading 2.9 per lower on Wednesday at $1.65 a gallon.

Still, forecasters warned Irma’s effects could be felt as far as 200 miles from its centre. 

“I’m leaving Miami,” said Federico Uribe, a Miami artist as he packed up in his warehouse studio, and lifted crated sculptures on to trolleys to escape potential rain spill. “Whether the storm hits Miami or not, it’s going to be chaos here for days.” 

Many others are planning to stay put, though, and Miami supermarkets have run out of water, batteries and essential supplies as the city’s 2.7m residents stock up. CCTV footage of Florida highways showed residents streaming north. Gov Scott said he had waived tolls on the highways. 

Unlike Harvey, where rain and flooding were the biggest dangers and caused an estimated $200bn of damage, the most potent impact of Irma will be its winds and tidal surges. 

Cathy Seifert, insurance analyst at CFRA Research, said she expected insurance and reinsurance stocks to remain volatile. “If Irma live up to her reputation, the damage could be significant enough to tighten both the insurance and reinsurance market, particularly for property coverage,” she said.

Irma’s biggest financial impact, so far, has been to push up sharply the prices of orange juice futures as Florida is home to the majority of US orange production. Shares in Royal Caribbean, Carnival Corp and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, the cruise ship companies, also slipped on Wednesday. 

Category 5 is the highest measure on the Saffir-Simpson scale used to assess the strength of hurricanes. Dr Michael Bell, an associate professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University, said that Irma was the most powerful hurricane recorded in the Atlantic outside of the Gulf of Mexico or Caribbean. If it makes landfall in Florida, Irma would be one of only four Category 5 hurricanes to have hit the US mainland since records began, after the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, Camille in 1969 and Andrew, which ravaged Florida, in 1992.

Additional reporting by Gregory Meyer in New York