I
In the days following
Hurricane Harvey – the
deadly hurricane which
devastated southern Texas
– another hurricane set its sights
for the Caribbean and Florida.
Hurricane Irma...a name that
will forever remind people of
destruction, loss of life, loss of
homes and livelihood. For nearly
over a week we heard all the
warnings. Our TV screens where
plastered with weather channels
and news outlets all tracking the
potentially historic Category
5 hurricane that would leave
many homeless. We were told to
prepare, stock up, and in many
cases evacuate. Irma forced the
entire state of Florida into a state
of emergency causing hundreds of
thousands of residents to depart
their homes and leave behind
belongings to flee a storm of
record-breaking size. This couldn’t
have been a worse time for a state
of emergency, due to the fact we
sent a surplus of supplies and help
to Texas to aid in their recovery
from Harvey. The Caribbean was
the first to get hit, showing us
just what the storm is capable of;
turning naysayers into believers
and proving this was a threat not to
be taken lightly.
It became an extremely powerful
and catastrophic hurricane and
the most intense observed in the
Atlantic since Dean in 2007. It
was also the most intense Atlantic
hurricane to strike the United
States since Katrina in 2005, and
the first major hurricane to make
landfall in Florida since Wilma in
2005. This year has been nothing
short of weather problems. Irma
was the ninth named storm, fourth
hurricane, and second major
hurricane of the 2017 Atlantic
hurricane season.
Irma caused widespread and
calamitous damage throughout its
long lifetime, particularly in parts
of the northeastern Caribbean and
the Florida Keys. Under favorable
conditions, Irma rapidly intensified
shortly after formation, becoming a
Category 2 hurricane within a mere
24 hours. It became a Category 3
hurricane (and therefore a major
hurricane) shortly afterward;
however, the intensity fluctuated
between Categories 2 and 3 for the
next several days due to a series of
eyewall replacement cycles. This
made many residents skeptical of
whether it would hit us here in
Florida at all.
tropical cyclone worldwide.
Another eye wall replacement
cycle caused Irma to weaken back
to a Category 4 hurricane, but the
storm attained Category 5 status
for a second time while making
landfall in Cuba. After dropping
to Category 3 intensity due to land
interaction, the storm re-intensified
to Category 4 as it crossed warm
waters between Cuba and Florida,
before making landfall on Cudjoe
Key with maximum sustained
winds of 130 mph. Irma dropped
back to Category 3 by the time it
made a second Florida landfall on
Marco Island. Irma weakened to a
Category 2 hurricane later that day,
the first time it weakened below
major hurricane status in over a
week, and eventually dissipated off
the coast of New England.
Here in Central Florida we got
lucky…to some that might be
hard to say, but we say that with
the knowledge that South Florida,
The Florida Keys and many of the
Caribbean Islands were devastated
beyon d recognition. We have been
left with damaged homes and no
power while others have no homes
to return to. Buildings were flooded
and people were trapped in crushed
homes with nothing to do but wait
On September 4, Irma resumed
for help. Power lines and cellphone
Hurricane Irma developed on
intensifying, becoming a Category 5 towers all damaged causing many
August 30, 2017 near the Cape
hurricane by early the next day.
linemen, tower workers, and first
Verde Islands, from a tropical wave On September 6, Irma reached
responders to leave their families
that had moved off the west African its peak intensity with 185 mph
and homes with no knowledge of
coast three days prior.
winds making it the strongest
when they will return.
OCTOBER 2017
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WINTER GARDEN MAGAZINE
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17