HURRICANE Irma is showing signs of weakening and could be downgraded to a tropical storm on Monday.
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By 2 a.m. ET, it had sustained winds of 85 mph with its center 25 miles northeast of Tampa.
Irma is moving north-northwest at 18 miles per hour with a minimum central pressure of 970 mb.
Downed power lines: There are many power lines down, Bowden said, and the main power pole off the island also went down in the storm.
Massive 10ft (3.1m) storm surges overwhelmed roads and buildings, and cut off Florida Keys from the mainland.
More than 1.4 million homes and businesses in south Florida are without power from Hurricane Irma, with repairs to its system likely to take weeks.
Hurricane Irma has made landfall in the Florida Keys and has left devastation in its wake.
After the Keys, Irma crossed over warm waters and hit the United States mainland near the beach town of Marco Island. Three-quarters of the city remained without power and several people had been arrested for looting.
Jones added that once the wind direction shifts, the water will quickly return.
“It is unsafe to be walking out there”, according to a Tampa city official. No injuries have been reported.
The center of the storm is anticipated to move into southwestern Georgia later today and be in eastern Alabama by Tuesday morning.
The morning begins with light rain that will be diminishing by the afternoon.
Flying objects such as coconuts turned into risky projectiles. Streets flooded, and flying objects such as coconuts turned into unsafe projectiles.
“Everything is flooded”, he said.
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn declared a curfew for Tampa that is effective as of 6 p.m. Sunday night, which means “all residents need to be indoors”, Alert Tampa said.
Jones said the severity of the storm surge depended on which side of the storm Tampa was on.
According to some reports, almost 4 million to 5 million homes and businesses in Florida lost power, and utility officials said it could take weeks to restore electricity to everyone.
“One Twitter post said, “#FLPD WARNING from Chief: “‘anyone who intends to victimize our neighbors during this hard time.will be captured and arrested'”.
“Storm surge has the highest potential to kill the most amount of people and to cause the most amount of damage”, Mr Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told Fox News Sunday.
The NHC has put out a hurricane warning and a tropical storm warning stretching across nearly all of Florida into Georgia and SC – an area where more than 20 million people live.
A mandatory evacuation order has been issued for portions of Hardee County.
As Irma zeros in on Atlanta, the city faces its first-ever tropical storm warning.
After Monday night, the National Weather Service says Jose may do something unusual: it could hit the brakes and start a series of loops.
Irma hit 57 years to the day since Hurricane Donna in 1960, which was the last time a Category 4 hurricane devastated the Florida Keys.
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