Hurricane Irma threatens Florida, Track Less of a Threat to Carolinas

ABC NEWS– South Florida is bracing for a major storm surge and powerful winds even as Hurricane Irma weakened to a Category 4 storm as it races toward the U.S. mainland.

“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 Administrator (FEMA), said at a press conference Friday morning. “We’re going to have a couple rough days.”

Irma was downgraded from a Category 5 to a Category 4 storm early Friday morning. As of 11 a.m. Eastern Time, the storm was moving 14 mph and located 405 miles southeast of Miami.

The National Weather Service cautioned that Irma is still “extremely dangerous,” with maximum sustained winds of 150 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.

Overnight projections of Irma’s path showed less of a threat to the Carolinas as the monster storm appears likely to move directly up the middle of Florida and curve inland