Source± ABC news

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/cuba-surveys-toppled-houses-flooded-cities-wake-irma-49735861

Waves from Irma flood Havana coast even as storm moves away
By andrea rodriguez and desmond boylan, associated press
HAVANA — Sep 10, 2017, 5:16 PM ET

Cuba

Powerful waves and storm surge from Hurricane Irma topped Havana’s iconic Malecon seawall and left thousands of homes, businesses and hotels swamped Sunday, even as the storm moved away from the island.
There were no immediate reports of fatalities in Cuba, where the government prides itself on disaster preparedness and said it had carried out evacuations totaling more than 1 million people.
Authorities warned that the floodwaters could linger for more than a day, and there was as-yet uncalculated damage to sugarcane and banana fields in central Cuba and to northern cays studded with all-inclusive resorts, potentially dealing a major blow to the country’s key tourism industry.
The powerful storm ripped roofs off homes, collapsed buildings and caused floods along hundreds of miles of coastline after cutting a trail of destruction across the Caribbean. Irma has killed at least 24 people in the region, leaving officials scrambling to bring aid to shattered communities.

In Havana, home to some 2 million residents, central neighborhoods along the coast between the Almendares River and Havana harbor suffered the brunt of the flooding, with seawater penetrating as much as a half-kilometer (one-third of a mile) inland in places.
Waves as high as 20 feet (6 meters) continued to pound Havana, with the spray topping the lighthouse at the Morro fortress on the entrance to the bay, and Civil Defense Col. Luis Angel Macareno warned that the flooding would persist into Monday.
Emergency workers and residents boated and waded through streets littered with all manner of debris: toppled trees, downed electrical lines, roofs torn off by the winds and cement water tanks that fell from atop homes to the ground.
The Associated Press

Elena Villar and her mother spent the night huddling in the lobby of a building on higher ground as her home of 30 years filled with more than 6 feet (2 meters) of water.
“I have lost everything,” she said, on the edge of tears.

Floodwaters entered the high-end Melia Cohiba and Riviera hotels, where the storm damaged the buildings, landscaping and roofing.

The waters and winds also damaged the seaside U.S. Embassy, tossing around shipping containers that sit on the compound, smashing parts of its black perimeter fence, ripping exterior panels from the building and breaking windows and doors. The embassy’s flag was in tatters fluttering from its staff Sunday.

The Associated Press
A woman rides a bike past palm trees felled by Hurricane Irma, in Caibarien, Cuba, Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017. There were no reports of deaths or injuries after heavy rain and winds from Irma lashed northeastern Cuba. Seawater surged three blocks inlandmore +
Hector Pulpito, 33, recounted a harrowing night at his job as night custodian of a parking lot that flooded five blocks from the sea in the Vedado neighborhood.
“I felt great fear. This was the worst of the storms I have been through, and the sea rose much higher,” Pulpito said. “The trees were shaking. Metal roofs went flying.”
State television reported severe damage to hotels on the northern cays off Ciego de Avila and Camaguey provinces.
Witnesses said a provincial museum near the eye of the storm was in ruins, and authorities in the city of Santa Clara said 39 buildings collapsed.
Communist Party newspaper Granma reported that the Jardines del Rey airport serving the northern cays was “destroyed” and posted photos to Twitter showing the shattered terminal hall littered with debris.

In Caibarien, a small coastal city about 200 miles (320 kilometers) east of Havana where many residents stayed put to ride out the storm, winds downed power lines and neighborhoods were under water.
Similar scenes played out across the Caribbean, where the storm devastated islands before setting its sights on Florida.

A truck drove through damaged neighborhoods distributing water, and authorities expected to set up distribution points on Monday. Plans to do so were initially delayed by Hurricane Jose, which roared toward the region as a Category 4 storm on Saturday but turned north without doing much further harm.

“Everything has been destroyed where I work. There’s nothing there,” 27-year-old Manon Brunet-Vita said as she walked through the streets of Grand Case. “When I got to this neighborhood, I cried.”

French Caribbean

More than 1,000 tons of water and 85 tons of food have been shipped to the French Caribbean territories of St. Martin and St. Barts, and additional deliveries are expected, according to government officials in the nearby island of Guadeloupe.
Authorities announced the reopening of St. Martin’s Marigot port and said a boat was expected to dock by Monday with a 5-ton crane capable of unloading large containers of aid.
More police and soldiers were patrolling the streets following reports of looting, and authorities set up 1,500 emergency shelters.

Dutch St. Maarten

On the Dutch side of St. Martin, an island divided between French and Dutch control, an estimated 70 percent of all homes were destroyed by Irma.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Sunday that the death toll in his country’s territory had risen to four after the bodies of two unidentified people washed up on the island.
“Unfortunately, there are more victims to mourn,” Rutte said.
With power out to much of the French Caribbean region, France’s main electricity provider, EDF, said it has flown 140 tons of generators, pumps and other equipment to help St. Martin and St. Barts.

In St. Martin, formerly lush green hills were stripped to a brown stubble and the smell of rotting debris spread across the French Caribbean territory of 40,000 people. Irma passed through earlier in the week as a Category 5 storm.

US VirginIslands

In St. Thomas, the U.S. Virgin islands, a convoy of FEMA trucks carrying water rumbled past damaged homes with sirens blaring.
William Mills, a 35-year-old security worker, said he waited in a mile-long line for gas. He said many were seeking to leave St. Thomas, but that’s not an option for him.
“I’m going to stay here and tough it out,” Mills said.
———
Boylan reported from Caibarien, Cuba. Associated Press writers Michael Weissenstein in Havana; Peter Orsi in Mexico City, Ben Fox in Miami; Ian Brown in St. Thomas, U.S Virgin Islands; Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Seth Borenstein in Washington; Alina Hartounian in Phoenix; Thomas Adamson and Angela Charlton in Paris; and Mike Corder in The Hague contributed to this report.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/hurricane-irma-landfall-cuba-category-5-170909040746649.html

But even as they came to grips with the massive destruction, residents of the islands faced the threat of another major storm, Hurricane Jose.

Jose, expected to reach the northeastern Caribbean on Saturday, was an extremely dangerous storm nearing Category 5 status, with winds of up to 250km/h, the NHC said on Friday.”

Hurricane Katia, I’m not sure of & haven’t heard more bout currently.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-41210865

(Less than half an hour ago FWIW)

Plus via Aussie ABC news online :

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-09/hurricane-irma-could-hit-florida-as-a-category-4-officials-say/8888362

(3 hours ago FWIW)

Plus this quote from here :

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-08/irma-katia-and-jose-hurricane-trio-baffles-scientists/8884834

..unparalleled here and totally ridiculous given [the scale of] Irma”.
– Eric Blake, National Hurricane Centre Scientist.

“Ridiculous” but also now our reality. Remember NASA climatologist James Hanson’s book title?

(Hint : ‘Bout storms and children.)

Note :the bloke quoted at the start here is an expert in hurricanes and a scientist so :

a) he really knows what he’s talking about

b) Scientists tend to be conservative and under rather than over-estimate things as a general rule.

c) a &b and think about their implications here.

Also recall what’s recently happened in Bangladesh, India and Nepal with horrendous flooding killing thousands plus and putting two thirds of Bangladesh underwater too?

Oh & Irma is apparently expected to strengthen now before it hits Florida.

“[New post] Possible Hurricane Irma
(..) “I’ve been putting comments on, or links to posts on, the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season Here, but I wanted to start a thread on Irma, which just now became a named storm. Irma is way out in the Atlantic, and its formation is so early that the NWS doesn’t have any significant information on it […]”

A week and more later we all experienced and still experience today the progress of hurricane Irma, a hurricane of a till now not known outer category (people suggest 6 or more) with outbursts of wind speed (flurry’s) round 350 km per hour. It seems that it ‘weekened’ to a ‘lesser’ but still most dangerous storm of category 4 by now, reaching Florida. For latest news I follow CNN, BBC World Service and amongst others The Guardian. See:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2017/sep/07/hurricane-irma-live-latest-updates-caribbean

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/07/sir-richard-branson-says-necker-island-completely-utterly-devastated/

Sir Richard Branson says Necker Island ‘completely and utterly devastated’ by Hurricane Irma
Barney Henderson, NEW YORK
8 September 2017 • 7:52am
Sir Richard Branson has said that his private Caribbean island, Necker, was “completely and utterly devastated” by Hurricane Irma. The British billionaire said that his team on the island were all safe, having hidden in a concrete cellar, but that buildings and trees on the island had been swept away. “It is a traumatic time here in the British Virgin Islands,” Sir Richard said via satellite phone for a blog post on his Virgin website. “I have never seen anything like this hurricane.”

Richard Branson

“All of the team who stayed on Necker and Moskito during the hurricane are safe and well. We took shelter from the strongest hurricane ever inside the concrete cellar on Necker and very, very fortunately it held firm. Our thoughts go out to everyone affected by the disaster elsewhere in the BVI, Caribbean and beyond,” Sir Richard wrote.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/07/hurricane-irma-13-killed-caribbean-florida-prepares-storm/
Deadly Hurricane Irma tears path through Caribbean as Florida evacuates.
Florida order Keys evacuation as state prepares for Hurricane Irma.
01:05 h

Danny Boyle 8 September 2017 • 7:18am
CLICK THERE FOR LATEST HURRICANE IRMA UPDATES
• Most powerful Atlantic hurricane leaves at least 13 dead
• Hurricanes Jose and Katia are also forecast to cause destruction in the region
• Donald Trump has said the winds of Irma are “the strongest I’ve ever seen”
• Bahamas next in the path of hurricane as residents of Florida and Georgia are told to evacuate
• Caribbean island of Barbuda ‘rubble’ after ‘total devastation’
• Emergency declared as storm heads to Cuba and Florida
• Donald Trump’s luxury resorts in path of Hurricane Irma
• British mother fears for daughters missing on Barbuda
• What to do if you are on holiday in the path of the storm
Hurricane Irma is continuing to tear a deadly path through the Caribbean, causing widespread destruction and reducing buildings to rubble, on a track that could lead to a catastrophic strike on Florida.
The American state is bracing for the arrival of the Atlantic’s most deadly storm in history, which has already left at least 13 people dead, with thousands homeless. Emergency chiefs warn it will have a “truly devastating” impact on the US.
Late on Thursday, the National Hurricane Center issued the first hurricane warning for the Keys and parts of South Florida, including some of the Miami metropolitan area of 6 million people. It added a storm surge warning and extended watch areas along the east and west coasts.

21m ago 08:30
A former official on the British dependency of Anguilla has an update on the carnage on the island left by Irma.
The official, who does not want to be named, said the island high school has been destroyed; the public works building has collapsed and part of the roof of the main hospital is missing.
“It is fair to call the situation devastating,” he said, “most roads remain blocked and power lines are down.”
He added that power lines are down everywhere and that mobile phone connections are patchy at best.
The UK government plans to deploy troops to the island after conceded that the situation there was worse than feared.

And so on, and so on.

‘September 6, 2017 10:32pm EDT
“The whole house was ripping apart”
After Irma left Barbuda, ABS TV Radio in Antigua gained access to the island and interviewed residents. One woman who was home with her children and brother during the hurricane called it “the worst experience of my life.”
“It was like the whole house was ripping apart,” the woman told ABS TV Radio. As the wind whipped her home, her daughter called 911. “They told us to go into the closet or use bathroom so that’s exactly what we did.”
The family split up and the woman sought refuge with her three children in the bathroom. They held onto the bathroom door as the wind rattled their home.
I told the children ‘pray, pray. God will help us. He will spare our life.’

WATCH CNN LIVE
‘September 7, 2017 12:17am EDT
A “brutal wind beating”
From CNN’s Amanda Jackson
Kelsey Nowakowski, who lives in St. Thomas, said the island took a “brutal wind beating” Wednesday as Irma swirled in the Atlantic.
After taking shelter inside her home for hours, she said she stepped outside to find debris all around her house.
This doesn’t look like it was ever a tropical paradise. It looks like an eerie fairytale forest’

WATCH CNN LIVE
‘September 7, 2017 12:50am EDT
More than 1 million people without power in Puerto Rico
From CNN’s Daniel Silva Fernandez and Mariano Castillo
As of 10:10 p.m. Wednesday night, 1,079,465 electric customers or about 68% of all customers were without power in Puerto Rico, said Puerto Rico’s utility executive director Ricardo Ramos Rodriguez.
Our crews will begin getting out to the streets as weather permits. They will assess the damage and schedule repairs in the coming days
Because authorities had said the island’s electric system was already “vulnerable and fragile” before Irma, residents told CNN affiliate WAPA that they were worried the storm might knock the power out for weeks or months.’