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All That Jazz
Thursday
September 7, 2017
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Evacuation
Florida Braces for ‘Buzz Saw’ Hurricane Irma
Motorists head north of Key Largo, Fla., on US 1, in anticipation of Hurricane Irma, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017. Keys officials announced a mandatory evacuation
Wednesday for visitors, with residents being told to leave the next day.
(AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
By JENNIFER KAY tially catastrophic winds of and flooded streets as it east coast and push into ple or more left the Florida
GARY FINEOUT 185 mph, steamed toward roared through a chain of Georgia and the Carolinas. Keys after all visitors were or-
Associated Press the Sunshine State and a small islands in the north- “This thing is a buzz saw,” dered to clear out, causing
MIAMI (AP) — Florida resi- possible direct hit on the ern Caribbean some 1,000 warned Colorado State bumper-to-bumper traffic
dents picked store shelves Miami metropolitan area of miles from Florida. Fore- University meteorology on the single highway that
clean and long lines formed nearly 6 million people. casters said Irma could professor Phil Klotzbach. “I links the chain of low-lying
at gas pumps Wednesday The most powerful hurri- strike the Miami area by don’t see any way out of islands to the mainland.
as Hurricane Irma, a Cate- cane ever recorded in the early Sunday, then rake the it.”
gory 5 monster with poten- Atlantic destroyed homes entire length of the state’s An estimated 25,000 peo- Continued on Page 3
At Press Time:
Irma Lashes Caribbean Islands, Puerto Rico with Rain, Wind
By DANICA COTO homes and flooded streets across and heavy destruction on the is- Dutch islands hammered by Irma
Associated Press a chain of small islands in the land. reported extensive damage but
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — northern Caribbean, passing di- “A significant number of the hous- no deaths or injuries.
Heavy rain and historic, 185-mph rectly over Barbuda and leaving es have been totally destroyed,” By Wednesday evening the cen-
winds lashed the Virgin Islands the island of some 1,700 people said Lionel Hurst, the prime minis- ter of the storm was 40 miles north-
and Puerto Rico’s northeast coast unable to communicate with the ter’s chief of staff. west of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin
Wednesday as Hurricane Irma outside world. France sent emergency food and Islands and 55 miles northeast of
roared through Caribbean islands Midcie Francis, spokesperson for water rations to the French islands San Juan, Puerto Rico, and head-
on its way to a possible hit on Flor- the National Office of Disaster Ser- of Saint Martin and Saint Barthe- ing west-northwest at 16 mph (26
ida. vices for Antigua and Barbuda, lemy, where Irma ripped off roofs kph).
The strongest Atlantic Ocean hur- said the government had so far and knocked out all electricity.
ricane ever measured destroyed confirmed one death on Barbuda Dutch marines who flew to three Continued on Page 2