Irma looms as mythical 'Big One' Florida has long feared
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First posted: Thursday, September 07, 2017 05:35 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, September 07, 2017 05:51 PM EDT
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — They call it the Big One — a mythic, massive hurricane that would obliterate the densely populated southeast coast. And it has long been the stuff of Florida’s nightmares.
Irma, it appears, could be it. The storm has triggered near-panic in a region of more than 6 million people that includes Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, clustered along a narrow ribbon of coastline that has seen nearly double-digit population growth over the past five years.
Isabella Janse Van Vuuren just arrived — she left her home in South Africa two weeks ago to start a job as a stewardess on a yacht, which she and other crew members spent time securing. As Irma approached, she was trying to decide whether to stay or go.
“I’m terrified,” she said. “I’m not used to this. I just want to go into a cave and hide, basically. This is not a nice feeling.”
But for veterans of life in the Sunshine State, hurricanes are as Floridian as oranges and Mickey Mouse. And every hurricane season brings with it the chance of cataclysm.
In 1928, a hurricane caused Lake Okeechobee to burst its banks, unleashing a 20-foot (6-meter) wall of water that killed an estimated 2,500 people. The event was a key part of Zora Neale Hurston’s classic 1937 novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”
“All gods who receive homage are cruel,” she wrote. “All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion.”
Another famed storm, the killer 1935 Labor Day hurricane that swept across the Florida Keys, is central to the plot of the 1948 movie “Key Largo,” which starred Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.
Irma could be the strongest hurricane to ever hit southern Florida. Andrew hit in August 1992 and caused widespread damage south of Miami. It killed 15 people and indirectly caused the deaths of 25 more in Miami-Dade County alone, according to the National Hurricane Center.
“It was very scary. We just had no idea how bad it was going to be,” said Rosi Ramirez, who went through Andrew as a child in Homestead.
She’s leaving Florida for South Carolina with her three children. “I don’t want my kids to go through that traumatic experience. I hadn’t thought about Andrew in a while. But now I am seeing some flashes of what we went through. It is all coming back.”
Floridians have not been directly hit by a major hurricane since Wilma in 2005, but if they needed any reminder of what might await them, they saw the catastrophic flooding and damage caused by the storm Harvey in Houston. Jenna Wulf, a native Floridian who is six months pregnant, said seeing the damage caused by Harvey made her family more cautious; she stocked up on water Saturday and the hurricane shutters are going up on her home in suburban Plantation.
“I think it’s such devastation that you’d be silly not to go through the motions,” she said. “I’m nervous because I’m pregnant and because I have a baby already. I’m trying not to watch (the news) because I think it’s causing more panic.”
Andrew is often considered the worst storm in South Florida’s history. But in terms of fatalities, it didn’t come close to the “Great Miami Hurricane” of September, 1926, which killed 372 people when it came ashore directly over the city, carrying with it a 10-foot (3-meter) storm surge. Many died after apparently thinking the worst was over when the storm’s relatively calm eye passed over Miami, only to be caught without shelter in the second part of the hurricane, according to a National Weather Service history.
“Residents of the city, unfamiliar with hurricanes, thought the storm was over and emerged from their places of refuge out into the city streets. People even began returning to the mainland from Miami Beach. The lull lasted only about 35 minutes,” the history says.
“The intensity of the storm and the wreckage it left cannot adequately be described,” it says.
The hurricane brought a halt, at least temporarily, to a growth boom which saw Miami’s population more than double to more than 100,000 in just six years. Today’s population of Miami-Dade County is about 2.7 million.
Craig Pittman, an environmental reporter at the Tampa Bay Times and the author of the bestselling book ‘Oh, Florida,’ said the mythic Big One is just that — a myth. Hurricanes are just a fact of life in a state that is hit by the big storms more often than any other state. And even if the Big One were to strike, he doubts that it would deter people from living in — or visiting — what many consider paradise.
“We’re the state that’s constantly trying to kill us,” he said. “We’re the state with sinkholes, shark bites, alligators and lightning. And we get hit by hurricanes. Yet people keep flooding here day after day.”
People like Austin Spitler, a former Miami Dolphins player who moved from Ohio nine years ago. He said he never considered a potential storm as a reason to leave.
“It never crossed my mind, to be honest with you,” Spitler said. “It was the lure of the sun and the sand. The beautiful weather far outweighs any of the hurricanes that come through.”
But he added: “I hope I’m not eating my words.”
Irma looms as mythical 'Big One' Florida has long feared | World | News | Toront
Killer Hurricane Irma targets Florida
By Brad Hunter, Toronto Sun
First posted: Thursday, September 07, 2017 08:06 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, September 07, 2017 08:19 PM EDT
Hurricane Irma is the barometric bogeyman that has haunted southern Florida for decades.
Panic is sweeping the heavily populated Miami-area and the vulnerable Florida Keys which are facing a head-on collision with Irma — the strongest Atlantic hurricane in history.
“I’m terrified,” said Isabella Janse Van Vuuren, who recently moved to Miami. “I’m not used to this. I just want to go into a cave and hide, basically. This is not a nice feeling.”
Irma is expected to pummel southern Florida early Sunday and so far her deadly 280 km/h winds are holding after leaving a trail of devastation in the Caribbean.
On the tiny island of Barbuda, the destruction was catastrophic. About 850 of its 1,400 people have been left homeless and a two-year-old child was killed in the storm.
Nothing was left standing.
“Either they were totally demolished or they would have lost their roof,” Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne told The Associated Press. “It is just really a horrendous situation.”
Aid is flooding into hard-hit islands in the Caribbean where Irma has so far killed at least 18 and left thousands homeless.
More than 500,000 people in southern Florida have been ordered to evacuate.
The monster storm has left 1 million people in Puerto Rico without power but there have been no major casualties on that island.
Deaths were reported in St. Martin, the British island of Anguilla, and Barbuda.
In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Hurricane Jose has grown into a Category 3 blast, holding a knife to many of the same islands ravaged by Irma.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted Irma would remain at Category 4 or 5 as it neared the Turks & Caicos and parts of the Bahamas by Thursday night and blasted Cuba on Friday.
Robert DeNiro has vowed to rebuild Barbuda.
“There is no power, no gasoline, no running water. Houses are underwater, cars are floating through the streets, inhabitants are sitting in the dark in ruined houses and are cut off from the outside world,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said of storm-ravaged colony, St. Maarten.
Meanwhile, in Florida, residents are battening down the hatches and bracing for the worst.
People are boarding up their homes, pulling boats out of the water and loading up on gas, groceries and other supplies. Tanker trucks are being escorted by state troopers because of soaring tensions.
“It is wider than our entire state and could cause major and life-threatening impacts from coast to coast. Regardless of which coast you live on, be prepared to evacuate,” Gov. Rick Scott said.
While it’s unlikely Irma will be America’s deadliest hurricane — that honour goes to the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900 when 6,000 died — it could be the costliest.
President Donald Trump has approved state of emergency declarations for the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, allowing federal agencies to step in and provide aid.
Across the Caribbean, paradise is in ruins with shattered lives and dreams.
On St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Laura Strickling said she emerged from safety to find the lush island in tatters.
“There are no leaves. It is crazy. One of the things we loved about St. Thomas is that it was so green. And it’s gone,” Strickling said. “It will take years for this community to get back on its feet.”
Killer Hurricane Irma targets Florida | World | News | Toronto Sun
