Hurricane Irma turns Florida into a 'war zone'

Floodwater caused by Hurricane Irma in Bonita Springs, Florida. Photo / AP

Tensions are spilling over in Florida with residents erupting in protest after police denied them access to their homes, some of which are unrecognisable after Hurricane Irma.

The Miami Herald reports the row erupted between locals and police late Monday morning as Florida Keys families waited in the heat to return home. Some still hadn't heard from friends or relatives who had stayed behind.

Monroe County police reportedly told residents they were only letting utility companies and state contractors pass, but were challenged after two unmarked cars went through the checkpoint.

"That's bulls**t!" one Keys resident, who refused to give his name, shouted at police from a RaceTrac gas station. "Those people are tourists!"

When a deputy sheriff approached, the man put his hands behind his back and dared the officer to arrest him.

Debris from Hurricane Irma lays on the side of the Overseas Highway in Islamorda in the Florida Keys. Photo / AP

"People are dying in there. They're thirsty, they're hungry," he told the official.

"I say we all just get in the car and drive. What are they going to do? Shoot us?" another man yelled to the others waiting at the gas station.

"This stuff right here is the reason why next storm they aren't going to get people out of the Keys," said the man, who identified himself as a Cudjoe Key resident.

"I've been in the Keys for 40 years. This is the first time I ever evacuated and it'll be my last."

Residents brace for the worst

It comes as Florida's Governor has warned locals to expect "devastation" as the first residents return home to survey damage inflicted by Hurricane Irma.

Photos have emerged of the devastating aftermath of the monster storm, which has left
some homes unrecognisable after smashing the area.

Governor Rick Scott on Monday warned the path to recovery from Irma would be long and hard, particularly for the worst-hit Keys island chain that bore the brunt of the storm's destructive force.

"There's devastation," Scott told a press conference following an aerial tour of the archipelago, which was the first part of the United States to be struck by Irma while it was still a Category Four hurricane.

"I just hope everybody survived," he said. "It's horrible what we saw. Especially for the Keys, it's going to be a long road.

Julia Waters, 7, left, and Jayden Emmons, 4, play in their flooded after Hurricane Irma passed through Bonita Springs, Florida. Photo / AP

"We saw a lot of boats washed ashore and we saw any, basically, any trailer park there overturned," Scott continued, adding that water, sewage and electricity had all been knocked out.

U.S. Northern Command has confirmed that helicopters from the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier are flying in the Key West area, mostly for assessment and evaluation of airfields to see if they can be used.

Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams says they're still assessing damage to the beach bridges, and they'll let residents know when it's safe to return. He urged people not to line up at the bridges, because they'd only be blocking emergency vehicles.

"It's a war zone"

Officials in the Florida Keys have warned tourists and residents to stay away until further notice, noting: "The Keys are not open for business."

A US journalist surveying the damage tweeted: "It's hard to describe the lower (Florida) Keys right now. Best word I could say is war zone."

Footage from the Grassy Key island shot by US broadcaster NBC showed downed power lines, felled trees, and streets strewn with debris and vehicles. But homes that were made from concrete appeared to have withstood the gusts.

Five deaths in Florida have been blamed on Irma, along with two in Georgia and one in South Carolina. At least 34 people were killed in the Caribbean as the storm closed in on the U.S. mainland.

Debris litters the street following Hurricane Irma at Marco Island, Florida. Photo / AP

Irma made its first landfall in Florida on Sunday morning in the Keys as a Category 4 storm, with 209km/h winds. It has now been downgraded to a tropical storm, but is still considered dangerous.

In a White House press briefing on Monday afternoon, Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert said recovery in the Florida Keys is "going to take a while. ... I would expect that the Keys are not fit for re-entry for regular citizenry for weeks."

Meanwhile, millions of Floridians could be waiting weeks for the lights to come back on.
Irma's impact on Florida's power supply may be bigger than we thought, with the state's largest utility saying today the majority of the population is without power.

"More than half of the population of Florida is out of power would be my guess," said Eric Silagy, president and chief executive of Florida Power and Light.

While 6.5 million account holders have no power, the fact people had more than one account pushed the number far higher.

Mr Silagy urged patience and asked people not to call for help getting their power back on.

"Until we have a better assessment where the damage is, we won't be able to tell," he said.

A mobile home community is flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in Everglades City, Florida. Photo / AP

Convoys of utility trucks were pictured making their way down 1-95 through Orlando towards the Florida Keys and Miami, as blacked-out business owners asked why they had to wait for help.

"They have told us that we have to wait until the first people to be impacted get their lines fixed, so we don't know how long we have to wait," said petrol station worker Desi as he surveyed the damage at his Melbourne business.

Orlando Utilities Commission spokesman Roseann Harrington said: "We ask for everybody's patience. This will probably be the largest utility restoration and rebuild project in the history of the United States."

And temperatures are set to soar: sweltering air and humidity are expected to broil Miami with a heat index as high as 42C over the next four days, according to AccuWeather.

Urgent evacuations

The city of Jacksonville in northeast Florida ordered urgent evacuations on Monday as record floods from monster storm Irma were set to rise even higher with the oncoming high tide.

"If you are in Evacuation Zone A or B along the river you need to heed this warning and get out now," the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said on its Facebook page, referring to neighbourhoods along the St Johns River which bisects the city.

"Historic flood levels already. Levels will continue to rise. Expect 4-6 feet (1.2-1.8 metres) above normal high tide levels. Very significant river flooding is coming. It is going to be bad at high tide around 2.00pm."

Residents who needed help getting out were urged to put a white flag, T-shirt, or other white object in front of their home to grab the attention of search and rescue teams.

"In the event of rising water, go up, not out," the sheriff's department added.
Video posted on Twitter on Monday morning showed murky floodwater flowing quickly along a street in downtown.

Damaged street signs sit among debris in the Naples Estates mobile home park in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in Naples, Florida. Photo / AP

Jacksonville, population 880,000 was not in the direct path of Irma, which was downgraded to a tropical storm earlier on Monday and travelling north roughly in line with the state's western coast.

But that placed Jacksonville in the northeast portion of the massive storm, putting it at the greatest risk of powerful winds and rain, with Irma's tropical storm-force winds extending out 665 kilometres from the eye.

Irma weakens to tropical storm

Irma weakened from a hurricane into a still-dangerous tropical storm on Monday as it pushed inland.

The storm engulfed nearly the entire Florida peninsula, wreaking havoc from the state's southernmost point up to the Georgia line, from the Atlantic coast to the Gulf side. It swamped homes, uprooted massive trees, flooded streets, cast boats ashore, snapped kilometres of power lines and toppled construction cranes.

A sailboat sits on its side in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in Miami, Florida. Photo / AP

More than 6.2 million homes and businesses remained without power, and 220,000 people huddled in shelters. Officials warned it could take weeks for electricity to be restored to everyone.

No deaths in Florida were immediately linked to the storm. But at least 34 people were killed in the Caribbean as Irma ravaged a string of resort islands long known as vacation playgrounds for the rich.