VIDEO: Hurricane Irma Live Updates: Packing 130-M.P.H. Winds, Storm Makes Landfall in Florida Keys

Hurricane Irma Live Updates: Packing 130-M.P.H. Winds, Storm Makes Landfall in Florida Keys

By THE NEW YORK TIMESSEPT. 10, 2017

The Palmetto Expressway in Miami on Saturday as Hurricane Irma approached. Credit Scott McIntyre for The New York Times

VIDEO

Hurricane Irma's Eye Passes Over Florida Keys https://nyti.ms/2xahxyp via @nytvideo

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The eye of Hurricane Irma, which was packing winds of 130 miles per hour, hit the Florida Keys on Sunday morning after leaving a path of destruction across the Caribbean.

The center of the Category 4 storm struck the Lower Keys about 9 a.m. Eastern, the National Hurricane Center said. The eye was moving over Big Pine, Cudjoe and Summerland Keys, the center said.

The storm was expected to rake the state’s west coast — a change from earlier predictions that left some residents and officials scrambling to find shelter. The new track could expose St. Petersburg — rather than Miami or Tampa — to a direct hit.

St. Petersburg, like Tampa, has not taken a head-on blow from a major hurricane in nearly a century, according to The Associated Press.

The National Hurricane Center upgraded Irma to a Category 4 hurricane at 2 a.m., saying it would cross the Lower Florida Keys during the following several hours. The storm was then expected to move up the state’s west coast, before heading inland over the Panhandle and into Georgia on Monday afternoon.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/10/us/hurricane-irma-florida.html?mcubz=1

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