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Hurricane Irma Makes A Second Florida Landfall Before Inundating Naples And Pounding Up The Gulf Coast

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Hurricane Irma slammed into the Florida Keys on Sunday morning with meteorologists promising that the “worst was yet to come.” Very quickly, the storm made its presence further known throughout South Florida, including Miami (shown above), which was absolutely thrashed by dangerous winds and filled with flood waters that were — in some areas — waist deep. The city sustained significant damage to many structures, including the Miami Heat arena, and about half of South Florida’s residents are without power.

Meanwhile, Irma began pushing up the Gulf Coast, and the storm’s eyewall made a second landfall on Marco Island, which immediately lost power, per the police chief: “In worst part of storm. No power, no water. On back up radio system. We’re all hanging in there ready to get out there to help others as soon as it’s safe to do so.”

From there, the storm headed to Naples with 143 mph sustained winds recorded at the city’s main airport. Flooding from Irma’s storm surge began without delay, and these videos show whiteout conditions (visibility deteriorated within 15 minutes as Irma’s eyewall arrived) and violent gusts of wind from the still-strong Category 2 hurricane.

https://twitter.com/AndrewRoth4/status/906985131650506752

Naturally, the Weather Channel sent out another poor intrepid reporter to brave Tampa’s insane conditions. Here’s Mike Bettes holding on for dear life.

In this clip, a CNN meteorologist noticed a few spots that he identified as birds (!) in Tampa: “Where do birds go during a hurricane? They go in the eye, because they know better.”

And although Irma’s eye has drifted over to the state’s western Gulf Coast, that doesn’t mean the other side of the state is going unscathed. The southeastern part of Florida has already seen six tornado touchdowns, as this CNN clip reveals.

Meanwhile, Tampa is on high alert and waiting for Irma after the storm’s winds sucked much of the water out of Tampa Bay. Once those winds reverse, the waters will flood back in and could be brutal.

(Via Sun-Sentinel, National Weather Service, CNN, ABC News & The Weather Channel)