Hurricane Irma unleashes full fury on Florida's Gulf Coast

T TV Monday 11/September/2017 11:47 AM
By: Times News Service

Hurricane Irma unleashes its full fury on Florida Sunday, lashing the state's Gulf Coast with winds up to 130 mph and sending floodwaters rushing into downtown Miami. Colette Luke has more.
Hurricane Irma unleashing its full fury on Florida Sunday.. lashing the state's Gulf Coast with winds up to 130 mph and sending floodwaters rushing into downtown Miami..
The massive storm toppling trees, dumping torrential rain..and snapping power lines .... leaving more than 2 and a half million homes and businesses without power... Andy Sullivan is following the storm in Miami..
In usually bustling Miami.. residents who hadn't fled the city hunkered down as water rushed in among luxury high rises...and two constructions crains collapsed.. Up north, the powerful forces of Irma, pulled the water in Tampa Bay out to sea leaving it just mud and sand... But meteorologists warned the water would return to shore on the backside of the hurricane..although early reports suggested most areas would be spared major storm surge.
After barreling across the Florida Keys Sunday morning as a Category 4, Irma crept up the western shore of the Florida Peninsula, making a second landfall at Marco Island, near the resort town of Naples... the storm downgraded, but leaving its mark throughout the state..
The storm, which forced the biggest evacuation in Florida's history.. has killed at least 28 people since it began its rampage in the Caribbean....
On Sunday, Irma claimed its first U.S. fatality - a man found dead in a pickup truck that had crashed into a tree in high winds in the town of Marathon, in the Keys. Irma picking up speed Sunday night, reaching northern Florida and southwestern Georgia by Monday afternoon.. with much of its power intact....