Hurricane Irma Pummels Florida, at Least 3 Dead Including Sheriff’s Deputy

Hurricane Irma is pummeling Florida with powerful winds and rain after making landfall in the Florida Keys this morning. The storm has left at least three people in the state dead, including a sheriff’s deputy, and over 1 million households and businesses without power.

In Miami, winds whipped around high-rise buildings at speeds approaching 100 mph, the National Weather Service said. A 94 mph wind gust was recorded at Miami International Airport.

The winds caused a tower crane to collapse on an under-construction high-rise in Miami this morning, city officials said.

The Miami-Dade Police Department tweeted that its officers are sheltered for their safety and cannot respond to calls for service, warning residents, “DO NOT venture out!”

In Pembroke Pines north of Miami, a 109 mph wind gust was reported.

Irma this morning also brought wind gusts of 120 mph to the National Key Deer Refuge on the Florida Keys and 89 mph to Key West.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” today that the Keys were “getting pounded.”

 

By 10 a.m. the storm’s eye was moving away from the Florida Keys, and by 11 a.m., the storm had moved to about 80 miles south-southeast of Naples on Florida’s west coast.

Irma is forecast to move up the western coastline of Florida this afternoon, with another landfall possible later today near Fort Myers and Naples.

Wind gusts of 75 mph were recorded at the Naples Airport early today, and officials were warning people to stay indoors and away from windows.

The storm’s eye is expected to pass near Fort Myers this evening and head over Tampa overnight, bringing the storm near Cedar Key and Tallahassee, along Florida’s panhandle, by Monday morning.

Fatalities in Florida

As Irma bore down on Florida this morning, at least three deaths were reported in the state.

A man in Monroe County, which encompasses Key West, was killed after he lost control of a truck that carried a generator as winds whipped at tropical-storm strength, officials said.

Two other people, including a sheriff’s deputy, died in a car crash in the rain in Hardee County, which is about 60 miles inland from Sarasota, officials said. The sheriff’s deputy, identified as Julie Bridges, was a 13-year veteran of the Hardee County force, said Hardee County Sheriff Arnold Lanier.

The death toll from the hurricane in the Caribbean meanwhile has risen to 22, bringing the total number in Irma’s path who have died to at least 25.