Florida went through a traumatic experience recently, thanks to the hurricane Irma. Termed as being the most intense Atlantic hurricane in over a decade, Irma did cause a lot of damage. Irma is said to have developed due to a tropical wave near the Cape Verde Islands on August 30. Shortly after this development, the hurricane intensified and moved forward to cause havoc. It was classified a Class 5 hurricane. It originated at the Caribbean, moving to Florida, Georgia and Carolinas. Although it hit Florida with all its might, it is set to slow down as it moves along its course. Tampa Bay had the worst impact of all causing widespread damage.
The devastation due to Irma is huge. Many deaths have been reported, 6.2 million people have suffered due to lack of electricity, homes of people have been flooded leaving them inhabitable, and the list goes on and on. According to reports it might take weeks for electricity to be fully restored in all the affected areas. Almost 7 million people were asked to evacuate their homes in light of the hurricane and in spite of evacuation; many people stayed back and hence needed to be rescued. To add to all of this, there have been man cases of robbery. People leaving their hoes unguarded provided these thieves a great opportunity to loot and till now 36 of them have been arrested. The entire state of Florida was in chaos with boats floating everywhere, fallen trees, roofs blow off, dead fish and a lot of garbage. The American government is working relentlessly to clean up and get back life to normal. President Trump, at a Pentagon ceremony remembering the terror attack victims of 2001, called the hurricanes Irma and Harvey, “Storms of catastrophic severity”. Rescue missions are under way. Clean up operations are under way in many areas including Caribbean, Florida etc. According to reports Irma has claimed the lives of 38 people in Caribbean and the count is only set to go up as the cleanup operations move forward. The exact death toll is yet to be announced as rescue teams are finding bodies of people buried under the debris. Millions of people are still in shelters waiting for the authorities to give the green signal so that they can return home.
Scientists blame global warming for this unexpected and disastrous hurricane. Climate change has led to a rise in sea level, and a rise in sea level lead to high chances of flooding the shore line areas in an event of a hurricane like Irma. Although they believe this to be the main reason for such a widespread damage, many others have also given other reasons. Transportation has taken a huge hit, with thousands of people stranded. Hope people recover from this catastrophic event and their lives back to normal as soon as possible.
