Wrapup 7: Tropical Storm Irma floods northern Florida cities after hammering south

Fednat Holding Co

11/09/2017 15:33

(Adds quotes from Trump, Kissimmee resident; insurer shares) 
    * 5.8 million without power across Florida 
    * Ten deaths reported in Cuba 
    * Irma downgraded to tropical storm as it heads northwest 
    * Fresh flooding in northeastern Florida cities 
    * Miami airport closed on Monday 
 
    By Zachary Fagenson and Daniel Trotta 
    MIAMI/KISSIMMEE, Fla., Sept 11 (Reuters) - Downgraded from a 
hurricane to a tropical storm, Irma flooded several northern 
Florida cities with heavy rain and a high storm surge on Monday 
as it headed out of the state after cutting power to millions 
and ripping roofs off homes. 
    Irma, once ranked as one of the most powerful hurricanes 
recorded in the Atlantic, hit a wide swath of Florida over the 
past day, first making landfall on the Florida Keys archipelago 
and then coming ashore south of Naples before heading up the 
west coast. 
    Now a tropical storm with sustained winds of up to 70 miles 
per hour (110 km per hour), Irma was located about 35 miles (56 
km) west of Gainesville and headed up the Gulf Coast, the 
National Hurricane Center said at 8 a.m. ET (1200 GMT). 
    The Cuban government reported on Monday that 10 people had 
been killed after Irma battered the island's north coast with 
ferocious winds and 36-foot (11-meter) waves over the weekend. 
This raised the overall death toll from Irma's powerful rampage 
through the Caribbean to 38.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N1LS0J0 
    Northeastern Florida cities including Jacksonville were 
facing flash flooding, with the city's sheriff's office pulling 
residents from waist-deep water. 
    "Stay inside. Go up. Not out," Jacksonville's website warned 
residents. "There is flooding throughout the city and more rain 
is expected." 
     
    HEART-POUNDING NIGHT 
    After what she called a terrifying night bunkered in her 
house in St. Petersburg, on Florida's Gulf Coast, with her 
children and extended family, Julie Hally emerged with relief on 
Monday. The winds had toppled some large tree branches and part 
of a fence, but her house was undamaged.  
    "My heart just pounded out of my chest the whole time," said 
Hally, 37. "You hear stuff hitting your roof. It honestly sounds 
like somebody is just whistling at your window the whole night. 
It's really scary." 
    Governor Rick Scott said he would travel later on Monday to 
the Florida Keys. Irma first came ashore at Cudjoe Key as a 
Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of up to 130 mph (215 
kph.) 
    U.S. President Donald Trump in a ceremony at the Pentagon to 
remember the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks vowed a full 
response to Irma, as well as continued federal support for 
victims of Hurricane Harvey, which flooded Texas. 
    "These are storms of catastrophic severity and we are 
marshalling the full resources of the federal government to help 
our fellow Americans," Trump said. "When Americans are in need, 
Americans pull together and we are one country." 
    The state's largest city, Miami, was spared the brunt of the 
storm but still saw heavy flooding. Utility crews were already 
on the streets there clearing downed trees and utility lines. 
All causeways leading to Miami Beach were closed by police. 
    As it traveled through the center of the state early on 
Monday, Irma brought gusts of up to 100 mph (160 kph) and 
torrential rain to areas around Orlando, one of the most popular 
areas for tourism in Florida because of its cluster of theme 
parks, the National Weather Service said. 
    A piece of a McDonald's "golden arch" sign hung in a tree 
near the fast-food restaurant in the central Florida city of 
Kissimmee on Monday morning. Valerie Gilleece, 55, had ridden 
out the storm in the city because her wheelchair-bound husband 
insisted on it, she said. 
    "I'm just thanking God to be alive," Gilleece said. "I 
wanted to go from the start but he's stubborn as hell." 
    Over the weekend, Irma claimed its first U.S. fatality - a 
man found dead in a pickup truck that had crashed into a tree in 
high winds in the town of Marathon, in the Florida Keys, local 
officials said. 
    During its passage through the Caribbean en route to 
Florida, Irma was ranked at the rare top end of the scale of 
hurricane intensity, a Category 5, for days. It carried maximum 
sustained winds of up to 185 mph (295 kph) when it crashed into 
the island of Barbuda on Wednesday. 
    Ahead of Irma's arrival, some 6.5 million people in southern 
Florida, about a third of the state's population, were ordered 
to evacuate their homes. Some 200,000 were housed in shelters 
during the storm, according to federal officials. 
     
    DAMAGE ESTIMATES 
    The storm did some $20 billion to $40 billion in damage to 
insured property as it tore through Florida, catastrophe 
modeling firm AIR Worldwide estimated. 
    That estimate, lower than earlier forecasts of up to $50 
billion in insured losses, drove insurance company shares higher 
on Monday. Florida-based insurers Federated National  FNHC.O , 
HCI Group  HCI.N  and Universal Insurance  UVE.N  were all up 
more than 12 percent. Meanwhile, Europe's insurance index 
 .SXIP  was the biggest sectoral gainer, up 2 percent and set 
for its best day in more than four months. 
    High winds snapped power lines and left about 5.8 million 
Florida homes and businesses without power, state data showed. 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N1LS0AI 
    Miami International Airport, one of the busiest in the 
country, halted passenger flights through at least Monday. 
According to the FlightAware.com tracking site, a total of 3,582 
U.S. flights were canceled on Monday, mostly as a result of the 
storm. 
    Irma was forecast to cross the eastern Florida Panhandle and 
move into southern Georgia later in the day, dumping as much as 
16 inches (41 cm) of rain, government forecasters said. 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nEMN1U024Y 
    Police in Miami-Dade County said they had made 29 arrests 
for looting and burglary. 
 
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Few mobile homes in Florida are storm-ready, despite code    
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N1LP1SV 
Insurers ache for qualified inspectors after U.S. hurricanes    
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N1LQ0CK 
UPDATE 1-In sunny Monte Carlo, insurers tally hurricane costs    
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N1LS14Z 
Powerful hurricanes to fuel demands from island nations at 
climate talks     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N1LR0WZ 
After Irma, tourists party and Cubans take a dip in flooded 
streets     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1LS1N9 
UPDATE 3-Caribbean faces hard road to recovery after Irma's 
ravages     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N1LR0IK 
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 (Additional reporting by Bernie Woodall, Ben Gruber and Andy 
Sullivan in Miami, Letitia Stein in Detroit, Colleen Jenkins in 
Winston-Salem, N.C., Doina Chiacu and Jeff Mason in Washington, 
Scott DiSavino in New York and Marc Frank in Havana; Writing by 
Scott Malone and Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Frances Kerry and 
Paul Simao) 
 ((scott.malone@thomsonreuters.com; +1 617 856 4342; Reuters 
Messaging: scott.malone.thomsonreuters.com@reute.net)) 
 
Keywords: STORM IRMA/