Florida-bound Hurricane Irma strengthens back to a Category 5 as it makes landfall in Cuba
Hurricane Irma strengthened back into a Category 5 storm Friday night as it made landfall on the Camaguey Archipelago of Cuba with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Irma's status as a Category 4 storm was relatively short-lived,
having been downgraded from a Category 5 storm early Friday morning.
As of 11 p.m.
ET, Irma was about 300 miles from Miami and moving about 13 mph toward
the west, the National Hurricane Center said.
Hurricane Irma remains forecast to hit the Florida Keys as a Category 5 storm.

Ahead of Irma's arrival in the
Sunshine State, the last flights departed Friday night from Miami
International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International
Airport. Miami's airport officially remains open, while Fort
Lauderdale's airport is closed on Saturday and Sunday.
Also ahead of
its arrival, The Associated Press reported late Friday night that many
ATM machines across southwest Florida were out of cash as people stocked
up in case Hurricane Irma power outages make credit card transactions
impossible.
Meteorologists expect Irma to make landfall in the
Keys between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. ET on Sunday. Overnight projections of
Irma's path showed less of a threat to the Carolinas as the monster
storm appeared likely to move directly up the middle of Florida and
curve inland.

The National Weather Service's Key West office issued a dire warning in the wake of the updated forecast.
"Obviously Hurricane Irma continues to be a threat that is going to
devastate the United States," Brock Long, administrator of the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said at a press conference Friday
morning. "We're going to have a couple rough days."
The
National Hurricane Center on Friday cautioned that Irma is "extremely
dangerous," with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, which are strong
enough to uproot trees, bring down power poles and rip off the roofs and
some exterior walls of well-built frame homes.

The National Hurricane Center issued its first hurricane warnings for
Florida overnight, warning residents that "preparations to protect life
should be rushed to completion."
Mandatory
evacuation orders have been issued for barrier islands, coastal
communities, low-lying areas and mobile homes across Florida, including
the counties of Brevard, Broward, Collier, Indian River, Martin,
Miami-Dade, Monroe, Palm Beach and St. John. According to the Florida
Division of Emergency Management, 5.6 million Floridians have been told
to evacuate.

Meteorologists predict Irma will
continue to weaken as the storm moves inland Sunday into Monday. Irma
will approach Jacksonville on Monday around 8 a.m. ET with winds of
about 75 mph, which would make it a dangerous Category 1 hurricane.
Then, Irma should weaken rapidly to a tropical storm, depression or a
remnant low later Monday as it moves across state lines into Georgia,
then potentially Alabama and Tennessee on Tuesday into Wednesday,
meteorologists say.
Disney World announced in a statement Friday
afternoon that its theme parks and water parks -- as well as Disney
Springs and the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex -- would be closing
early Saturday and remain closed through Monday. Disney's resort hotels
will remain open.
The worst of Irma's winds and storm surge are
projected to be near Marathon and Key Largo, but meteorologists say
Miami and heavily populated southeastern Florida will still be on the
strongest side of the storm.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Friday declared a state of emergency in anticipation of Irma's potential impact.
“It
is unfortunate that just as our nation has begun the process to repair
the catastrophic damage from Hurricane Harvey, that we are faced with
another extreme storm,” McAuliffe said in a statement. “However, if
there is one lesson we can take from the tragic events that occurred in
Texas, it is that we must redouble our preparation efforts."
Meanwhile,
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has declared a state of emergency for 94
counties in the state, his office said in a press release.

A storm-surge warning was in effect Friday morning for the Florida
Keys and the Sebastian Inlet southward around the Florida peninsula to
Venice, with the National Hurricane Center saying there is "danger of
life-threatening inundation from rising waters moving inland from the
coastline, during the next 36 hours."
Approximately 5.6 million
Floridians have received evacuation orders, both voluntary and
mandatory, the Florida Division of Emergency Management told ABC News
late Friday night. That figure exceeds 6 million people, when South
Carolina and Georgia are included.
There are facilities to shelter
1 million people in Florida, a FEMA spokesperson told ABC News, but the
question will be whether there is enough staffing to accommodate all of
the evacuees.
More people are expected to go to shelters on Florida's west coast, Gov. Rick Scott said in a press conference Friday night.
Some
shelters are already at capacity on the west coast. Two more shelters
are opening in Lee County -- in the Fort Myers area -- and three new
shelters are opening in Collier County -- in the Naples area, Scott
said.
Palm Beach County has issued a curfew to prevent looting and
other criminal activity as the storm approaches, according to a press
release. The curfew goes into effect Saturday at 3 p.m. It is unclear
when it will be lifted.
Rainfall
accumulations in southeast Florida and the Florida Keys are expected to
reach 10 to 15 inches, with totals up to 20 inches locally. Eastern
Florida up the coast to Georgia is expected to receive 8 to 12 inches,
according to the National Hurricane Center.
As the storm moves north, heavy rains are forecast to drench northern
Florida, Georgia and even possibly South Carolina and Tennessee by
Tuesday.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has issued mandatory
evacuations for barrier islands in Colleton, Beaufort and Jasper, the
South Carolina Emergency Management Division announced Friday night.

Government personnel have been deployed from Alabama to North Carolina
to prepare for Irma. Florida alone should anticipate days-long power
outages, FEMA said.
Turks and Caicos pummeled, Bahamas next
The
Turks and Caicos islands were hit hard as Irma passed over the tiny
archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean. A government spokesperson told ABC
News the British overseas territory had sustained "catastrophic" damage.
The
National Hurricane Center warned of a storm surge up to 20 feet on
Turks and Caicos with 8 to 12 inches of rain for the low-lying islands
through Sunday.
Portions of the island sustained different scales
of infrastructural damage, but there have been no reported deaths or
injuries from the storm, the office of Turks and Caicos Premier Sharlene
Cartwright-Robinson said in a statement Friday night after the storm
had passed.
"We are all alive," the statement read. "Thank God!"
The
Bahamas began to experience the extent of Irma's wrath Friday morning.
The storm's speed slowed down as the core of the hurricane passed
between the Bahamas and the northern coast of Cuba.
According
to The Associated Press, at least 20 people have died and thousands
were left homeless as a result of Irma, the most powerful Atlantic storm
in a decade, after it battered a string of Caribbean islands on
Wednesday. At the time, Irma was a Category 5 hurricane with maximum
sustained winds of 185 mph.
Long, the FEMA administrator, said at
the press conference Friday that the agency's primary goal is to
"stabilize the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico" by restoring power,
maintaining security and bringing in life-sustaining supplies.
ABC News' Daniel Peck and Max Golembo contributed to this report.
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