Hurricane Irma (2017)

Hurricane Irma’s Path in 2005

Hurricane Irma will always be remembered for the devastation that it caused.

While Hurricane Irma was only the fourth costliest hurricane on the world record, it did manage to break a few records of its own. For the citizens of Cuba, in particular, it was the worst hurricane that they had ever known.

The tropical storm that made Irma began on August 30, 2017, from the remnants of a storm off of the west side of the African coast. It quickly built up to a Category 3 hurricane within just a couple of days. Once there, however, it stayed reasonably stable at that category until the 4th of September when it jumped overnight into a Category 5.

During this time it established one of its first records of being one of the biggest hurricanes in the open waters of the Atlantic. It made its first landfall on September 6, 2017, on the first of the Leeward Islands. Fortunately, it was seen ahead of time that its path was taking straight towards the islands of the Caribbean, and preparations had already been made.

Beach erosion in North Beach from Hurricane Irma

A few different places had called a state of emergency on the 4th of September when Irma went into a Category 5 status, among them the southern part of Florida and Puerto Rico. Many of the islands had started their evacuations and closed all schools and businesses on the 5th of September. Hospitals in many places stocked up, and emergency crews were put on standby at the hospitals and the storm shelters.

The path of Hurricane Irma seemed to follow the line of the islands of the Caribbean, hitting almost all of them as it then turned up towards Florida. All in all, it kept its Category 5 status for 60 consecutive hours. Though Irma would get weakened as it made landfall on the islands, this was only to pick back up again.

Even though Irma had again strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane after hitting the last of the islands, it weakened to a Category 3 just before it made landfall in the Florida Keys on September 10, heading straight up the west coast. Two days previously, Florida had called out all 7,000 of its National Guard troops to assist in preparations.

Since over 6 million people had been ordered to evacuate from the coastal areas, tolls were suspended on toll roads. Certain roads even allowed driving on the shoulder as another lane in an effort to speed things up.

By the time the storm had wholly dissipated, it was over Missouri. It had caused 134 deaths, 92 of these deaths were in the U.S. with the rest of them taking place in the islands that had been in its path. As repairs and estimates were made of the damage, the sum total of the damage done was found to be over $77 billion worth.

Home fallen on a washed out beach in Hurricane Irma

In its course it had first hit the island of Barbuda followed by Saint Martin, Saint Barthelemy, Anguilla, and the rest of the Lesser Antilles. After that, it hit the British and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, and Cuba. In the States, it hit Florida and also affected Georgia, South and North Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee. 

Even though the island of Barbuda, which was the first island hit only had $150 million in damages, it was perhaps one of the hardest hit. Not only were the schools, hospitals, and hotels damaged so severely as to be almost unusable, but an estimated 95% of the structures of the whole island had been either flattened or flooded.

The Island of Saint Martin did not fare much better, with almost 60% of the structures in some areas being rendered completely inhabitable due to the storm. The French island of Saint Barthelemy recorded Hurricane Irma as one of the costliest natural disasters in half a century.

While Anguilla, the Lesser Antilles, and the Virgin Islands received lighter damage, Puerto Rico suffered heavily as well. This was due to many flash floods and over half a dozen landslides. Although the eye of Hurricane Irma passed above Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Bahamas, the island of South Caicos still lost around ¾ of its roofs with mudslides and flooding on these islands interfering with transportation and communication.

Debris on beach after Hurricane Irma

Cuba was also hit hard, with over $10 billion worth of damages. As for Florida, the worst of the damage happened in the Florida Keys with 84 of the 92 U.S. deaths occurring in this state. Many people lost power for some time even up into North Carolina.

It took some of the islands months to get their electricity and water both up and running again, with it taking five months before all of the British Virgin Islands had power. With many of the airports and landing strips out of commission, relief workers relied more on helicopters to get back and forth to the islands. A few ships were also used to help provide shelter as well as to bring large amounts of supplies.

Among its records, Hurricane Irma has that of one of the highest wind speeds. It also made records for how long it remained a Category 5 hurricane, being the very first hurricane of that strength to hit the northern part of the Leeway islands. It was also only the second Category 5 hurricane to hit Cuba in around a hundred years.

More uniquely Hurricane Irma is one of only two recorded hurricanes to hit more than one country while as a Category 5. This was also the first time on record that two hurricanes hit the U.S. coast within a couple of weeks of each other, both of them being Category 4. Due to all of these records and the amount of damage that was done, the name Irma has been officially retired from the rotation of hurricane names to choose from.

Max Sustained Wind and Pressure Chart - Hurricane Irma