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Hurricane Irma Upgraded to Category 5 Storm

by VOA News

   Hurricane Irma has strengthened to a Category 5 storm - the most severe
   designation for a hurricane, the National Hurricane Center said
   Tuesday.

   People in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean are preparing for the
   Irma's arrival late Tuesday or early Wednesday, as areas to the
   northwest, from Puerto Rico to Cuba to the coastal United States, wait
   to see the track the storm will take as the week progresses.

   Hurricane Irma's Category 5 designation means sustained winds of more
   than 280 kilometers per hour will severely damage homes, uproot trees
   and power poles and knock out power in affected areas for weeks.

   "We are looking at Irma as a very significant event,'' Ronald Jackson,
   executive director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management
   Agency, said by phone. "I can not recall a tropical cone developing
   that rapidly into a major hurricane prior to arriving in the central
   Caribbean.''

   In addition to the wind damage, forecasters expect the storm to drop
   seven to 15 centimeters of rain across the northern Leeward Islands,
   the British and U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The rain could
   cause dangerous flash floods and mudslides.

   Officials in Puerto Rico have declared a state of emergency and
   activated the National Guard in anticipation of Irma's expected arrival
   there by late Wednesday.

   In the U.S. state of Florida, Governor Rick Scott also declared an
   emergency across the entire state in order to give local authorities
   time to prepare for a potential landfall.

   U.S. disaster management teams are dealing with the after effects of
   Hurricane Harvey, which was a Category 4 storm when it made landfall
   late last month in the state of Texas and dropped historic amounts of
   rain as it stalled over the region.