IrmaSpecial

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H
Thursday
September 7, 2017
$2
vandals
deface
monuments
Metro, B-1
florida, fsu move
games to noon
to avoid storm
Sports, C-1
csx service
is improving,
chief says
Money, D-1
IRMA AIMS FOR FLORIDA
Mayor declares
emergency as
city gets ready
By Joe Daraskevich
joe.daraskevich@jacksonville.com
Bridge tenders climb down the Main Street bridge as workers prepare to remove scaffolding in preparation for Hurricane Irma on
Wednesday in Jacksonville. (Will Dickey/Florida Times-Union)
Hurricane lashes Caribbean, has U.S. in its sights
Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry declared
a state of emergency Wednesday
starting at 3 p.m. as Hurricane Irma
pounded the Caribbean and continued to
move toward the United States.
He said the uncertain path of the hurricane
made it hard to tell if mandatory
evacuations would be necessary in Jacksonville,
but he encouraged people living
in certain pockets of the city to evacuate
early to avoid traffic from South Florida.
“I would prepare and I would begin to
leave,” Curry said.
During an afternoon briefing with the
National Weather Service, Curry said he
was told by advisers Jacksonville could experience
a heavy traffic problem late in the
week and into the weekend due to people
traveling north through the area to avoid
the storm.
Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said
the best option for drivers leaving the area
is to head north on Interstate 95 because
Interstate 75 is the only other main artery
out of the state and both will be clogged
CiTy continues on A-4
By Danica Coto
Associated press
SAN JUAN, PUerto rico | Heavy
rain and historic, 185 mph
winds lashed the Virgin Islands
and Puerto Rico’s northeast
coast Wednesday as Hurricane
Irma roared through
Caribbean islands on its way to
a possible hit on Florida.
The strongest Atlantic
Ocean hurricane ever measured
destroyed homes and
flooded streets across a chain
of small islands in the northern
Caribbean, passing directly
over Barbuda and leaving the
island of some 1,700 people unable
to communicate with the
outside world.
Midcie Francis, spokesperson
for the National Office of
Disaster Services for Antigua
and Barbuda, said the government
had so far confirmed one
death on Barbuda and heavy
destruction on the island.
“A significant number of the
houses have been totally destroyed,”
said Lionel Hurst, the
prime minister’s chief of staff.
France sent emergency food
and water rations to the French
islands of Saint Martin and
Saint Barthelemy, where Irma
ripped off roofs and knocked
out all electricity. Dutch marines
who flew to three Dutch
This one could be bigger
than Andrew, Scott says
By Jim Turner
News Service of Florida
tALLAHASSee | Gov. Rick
Scott on Wednesday
continued warning Floridians
to pay attention
to record-setting Hurricane
Irma marching
through the Caribbean
toward a weekend encounter
with the Sunshine
State.
Scott said Irma could
be bigger than Hurricane
Andrew, a devastating
Category 5 hurricane
that 25 years ago
raced across South Florida
with 165 mph winds,
destroying more than
63,500 homes, leaving
$26.5 billion in damages
and 65 people dead.
“Here’s what we didn’t
A man surveys the wreckage on his property Wednesday after
the passing of Hurricane Irma in St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda.
Heavy rain and 185 mph winds lashed the Virgin Islands and
Puerto Rico’s northeast coast as the strongest Atlantic hurricane
ever measured, roared through Caribbean islands on its way to a
possible hit on South Florida. (AP Photo/Johnny Jno-Baptiste)
have in Andrew: We
didn’t have this amount
of wind; Andrew was
not as big as this is,”
Scott said Wednesday
morning at the Monroe
County Emergency
Management center in
Marathon. “This is 185
mph winds and they’re
tracking it even higher
than that at some times.”
Jane Hollingsworth,
meteorologist in charge
of the National Weather
Service in Tallahassee,
said the storm, which is
starting to impact the
U.S. Virgin Islands and
British Virgin Islands
as it travels along the
northern shore of Puerto
Rico, agreed with Scott’s
BiggEr continues on A-4
islands hammered by Irma reported
extensive damage, but
no deaths or injuries.
By Wednesday evening, the
center of the storm was 40
miles northwest of St. Thomas
in the U.S. Virgin Islands and
By Michael Biesecker
& Andrew Taylor
Associated press
WASHiNGtoN | Faced with
the looming threat of
dual disasters, the Federal
Emergency Management
Agency on Wednesday
ramped up preparations for
Hurricane Irma as it barreled
toward the Florida
coast, even as the agency
continued the massive recovery
effort in storm-battered
Texas.
It was a one-two punch
of powerful storms certain
to strain the agency’s
quickly dwindling coffers.
The roughly $1 billion
left in FEMA’s Emergency
Response Fund was expected
to run out as soon
as the end of the week, just
as Category 5 Irma could
be pounding Florida and
less than two weeks after
Hurricane Harvey caused
More inSiDe
Shutdown: Storm forces closings
and cancellations. A-3
Military preparation: Four ships
and thousands of troops get ready
for catastrophe. B-6
Early hit: Jacksonville businesses
are already feeling effects of
Hurricane Irma. D-1
Schedule shuffle: Sports teams
cancel weekend games. C-3
55 miles northeast of San Juan,
Puerto Rico, and heading westnorthwest
at 16 mph.
The U.S. National Weather
Service said Puerto Rico had
not seen a hurricane of Irma’s
magnitude since Hurricane
San Felipe in 1928, which killed
a total of 2,748 people in Guadeloupe,
Puerto Rico, and Florida.
“We have to prepare for the
worst,” Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo
Rossello said. “If we
don’t, it could be devastating.”
irMA continues on A-4
massive flooding in Houston.
The House on Wednesday
overwhelmingly
passed $7.9 billion in Harvey
disaster relief as warring
Republicans and
Democrats united to help
victims of that storm in
Texas and Louisiana. The
419-3 vote sent the aid
package — likely the first
of several — to the Senate
in hopes of getting the
bill to the president before
FEMA runs out of money.
Far more money will be
needed once more complete
estimates of Harvey’s
damage are in this fall. The
Mozart Vidot takes down banners on
the light poles around EverBank Field on
Wednesday afternoon assisted by Jonathan
Correa, both from PRI Productions special
events team, in preparation for the
possibility of Hurricane Irma hitting the
area. (Bob Self/Florida Times-Union)
FEMA focused on Harvey aftermath as Irma looms
Pat Reynolds sorts through books that were damaged by
floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey inside her home in
Spring, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
storm’s wrath could end up
exceeding the $110 billion
federal cost of recovery
from Hurricane Katrina in
2005.
That year was perhaps
the last time FEMA faced
as tough a test — when
hurricanes Katrina and
Rita struck within weeks
of each other. The agency’s
widely criticized response
to the then-unprecedented
flooding in New Orleans
became a major embarrassment
for the Bush administration.
Despite years
of post-recession funding
cuts during the Obama
administration, FEMA’s
leaders worked to streamline
and consolidate operations,
cutting costs while
maintaining staffing levels.
Still, top officials tried to
offer reassurance Wednesday.
FEMA continues on A-4
Weather
Cool front
Forecast on A-2
84 73
today's
high
Friday
morning's
low
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Crosswords D-5, E-3
editorials A-6
Legals C-5
Life
E
money
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Obituaries B-4
COPYRIGHT 2017
NO. 250
152ND YEAR
5 SECTIONS
34 PAGES
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