Hurricane Irma makes landfall in Florida Keys

Category Four Hurricane Irma on Sunday morning made landfall with gust wind speed of 171 kph in the Florida Keys, a coral cay archipelago located off the southern coast of Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).

The landfall occurred at the Cudjoe Key in the lower Florida Keys, the NHC said in an advisory.

Irma, with a maximum sustained wind speed of 215 kph, is moving northwest at 13 kph and expected to hit continental United States later Sunday, according to the NHC.

Much of downtown Miami has been flooded due to the storm surge, and two construction cranes have also been broken.

Into the afternoon, authorities said 27 people have been killed by Hurricane Irma. The death toll is expected to dramatically rise as the path of the hurricane is projected to cross ill-prepared population centers in West Florida.

TV signals have been completely cut off since early morning and the power went out shortly after. Local media reported that 2 million people are out of power in the state of Florida, including three quarters of the Miami-Dade County located in southeast of Florida.

Local police imposed a curfew starting 7 p.m. (2300 GMT) Saturday until 7 a.m (1100 GMT) Sunday, and said police and the fire department will not respond to calls after the wind speed reaches 39 mph, or 63 kph.

source: Xinhua