Hurricane Irma: Path of destruction moves north after hitting Florida Keys

The strongest storm in the history of the ironically nicknamed Sunshine State killed at least four people and left millions rushing to shelters as 130mph winds howled around them.

Downtown Miami was left neck-deep in water and the whole of the Florida Keys – a 110-mile-long peninsula in the south of the state – was submerged.

As two million people lost power, Irma ground slowly north and threatened the cities of Naples and Fort Myers with a 15ft storm surge – enough to cover a house.

Adding to the panic was the fact that the Category 4 storm did a last-minute course change so the eye struck the west coast of Florida rather than the east.

That meant people in the west were less prepared, and some who had fled to the area for safety ended up getting a direct hit.

State governor Rick Scott said: “The first thing I ask everybody to do is pray for us. I know a lot of people around the world want to help. The biggest thing you can do now is pray.”

Bob Buckhorn – the mayor of Tampa, which is set to be hit by the full force of the hurricane – brought in a curfew, adding: “We’re about to get punched in the face.”

He said: “That is our worst nightmare and we are about to get our own version of what Hell looks like.”

Irma had already torn through Cuba and other Caribbean islands, leaving 25 people dead. Ahead of its arrival, officials in Florida ordered more than six million people, a third of the state’s population, to evacuate.

As the 400-mile-wide storm made landfall, 70,000 people were in shelters as up to 25 inches of rain began to fall.

Miami was battered even though it was 100 miles to the east of the eye of the storm. Brutal 100mph winds and a 6ft storm surge left the downtown area submerged with palm trees uprooted and coconuts sent flying into windows.

In the financial district water was flooding into the underground car parks of luxury apartment blocks and turning streets into rivers.

A construction crane had snapped almost in half and was blowing about in the breeze meaning it could turn into a “flying missile” any minute, said David Halstead, former director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

City officials said they would not be sending out police or paramedics to respond to 911 calls during the storm because the winds were so strong.

This meant a woman in the Little Haiti neighbourhood had, initially, to handle the birth of her baby alone. An emergency operator talked her through the delivery before paramedics eventually made it to her home.

In the Florida Keys the National Weather Service office warned of “swathes of tornado-like damage”.

Larry Kahn, a website editor, said: “Everything is underwater. And I mean everything.”

A shelter that was one of the “refuges of last resort” had no power, no running water and one person among the 50 there had died of natural causes.

With food running low people were expecting to be in the building for days. “Everyone here seems to be just walking around in a fog,” he added.

Irma was originally due to strike the south-east tip of Florida which led to 650,000 people in Miami-Dade county being ordered to leave.

But on Saturday it changed course and hit the west coast instead.

A spokeswoman for Collier County on the west coast said: “We thought we were safe.”

Alyssa Candelmo, 19, said that she, her parents and grandparents, including her 82-year-old grandmother, decided to “ride it out” when it looked as if Irma was arriving on the east coast.

But when they saw the storm switch course they changed their tune.

She said: “Everyone was like ‘Oh, thank God,’ and now it’s like, ‘Holy c***, this is going to hit right where we’re staying’.”

Officials in towns on the west coast scrambled to open shelters and at the Germain Arena in Estero thousands of people queued up to get in.

Next in Irma’s sights were the cities of Naples, Fort Myers and Tampa, which are home to thousands of British expats.

Residents there saw Irma sucking water far out to sea before bringing it back with a vengeance.

Naples is just 3ft above sea level and the storm surge of 15ft threatened to cause “catastrophic” damage.

The National Weather Service announced an extreme wind warning for the region and said: “The safest place to be is in a reinforced interior room away from windows.

“Get under a table or other piece of sturdy furniture. Use mattresses, blankets or pillows to cover your head and body.

“Remain in place through the passage of these life-threatening conditions.”

Among those who paid a fatal price for not getting to shelter was a man who crashed his truck whilst carrying a generator in Monroe County in Key West.

Two others, including a sheriff’s deputy, died in a car crash in Hardee County which is inland from Sarasota on the west coast.

But some people took criminal advantage of the storm. A TV station in Fort Lauderdale filmed people looting a clothing store that had broken windows.

And in Broward County, sheriff’s deputies shot and wounded a burglar and arrested his accomplice trying to steal from a home.

Just six hurricanes in US history have made landfall at a greater intensity than Irma, the last being Katrina in 2005.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio said the west coast was the “worst route this thing could have taken”.

“The problem we have is there’s nowhere to move, the whole state’s being impacted by this.”

And the state’s Senator Bill Nelson warned that Irma was going to bring a “wall of water” to cities on the west coast.

As Irma was later downgraded to Category 3, President Donald Trump was being given a “comprehensive briefing” on the situation.