[dropcap]M[/dropcap]ajor flooding and high-speed winds have left 65% of homes damaged and 25% of homes destroyed in the Florida Keys from Hurricane Irma, which hit parts of the U.S earlier this week.
According to CNN:
The situation in the Sunshine State was trying the patience of people who rode out the storm and those who came home after evacuating Hurricane Irma’s path to find widespread devastation and access to their neighborhoods limited at times.
Due to blocked roadways, authorities were unable to reach residents in the lower Florida Keys for two days following Irma’s landfall.
Jacksonville, Florida is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States — is still trying to recover from record-breaking storm surge and flooding on Monday. More than 300 people have been rescued in Jacksonville, the governor said Tuesday.
“So many areas that you thought wouldn’t flood, flooded,” he said. (CNN)
Nine states in the U.S have been affected by Hurricane Irma as well as parts of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Barbuda.
As of Tuesday night, over 2 million homes were restored with power and the rest are expected to be restored by the end of the week.
Following Hurricane Harvey, which took the lives of 70 reported people in Texas, there are also reports of at least 22 deaths so far in Hurricane Irma.