[HAVANA] Hurricane Irma made landfall as a maximum-strength Category Five storm late Friday, US forecasters said, after leaving a trail of death and destruction on a string of Caribbean islands.

At 0300 GMT, the monster storm had made landfall on the communist island's Camaguey Archipelago, with the eye of the storm just 190 kilometres east-southeast of the Cuban city of Caibarien, and 300 miles south-southeast of Miami, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

It had maximum sustained winds of 260 kilometres per hour and was moving west at 20 kilometres per hour, also posing an increasing threat to the US state of Florida. </s> Hurricane Irma, after becoming a Category Five storm, made landfall at Cuba's Camaguey Archipelago (File) </s> Hurricane Irma pummeled the north coast of Cuba Saturday, inflicting "significant damage" as millions of people in the US state of Florida hunkered down for a direct hit from the monster storm.

Irma's blast through the Cuban coastline weakened the storm to a Category Three, but it is still packing 125 mile-an-hour winds (205 kilometer per hour) and was expected to regain power before hitting the Florida Keys early Sunday, US forecasters.

At least 19 people have been killed since Irma began its devastating march through the Caribbean as a Category Five storm of nearly unmatched power, making landfall late Friday in Cuba on the Camaguey archipelago.

Terrified Cubans who rode out Irma in coastal towns reported "deafening" winds, uprooted trees and power lines, and blown rooftops.

"What's out there is terrible," said Gisela Fernandez, a 42-year-old nurse, after the storm whipped the town in Chapara in the province of Las Tunas Friday. "It's finished raining, but all night long there were terrible winds."

The governor of Camaguey province, Isabel Gonzalez Cardenas, said her area was "seriously affected," but there were no immediate reports of casualties. Cuban officials reported "significant damage."

More than a million people evacuated from vulnerable areas in Cuba.

In Florida, cities on both the east and west coasts of the peninsular state took on the appearance of ghost towns, as nervous residents heeded insistent evacuation orders affecting 5.6 million people.

The storm's forecast track has shifted slightly, so it now looks bound for Florida's west Gulf coast instead of the Atlantic coast, with landfall expected Sunday morning in the Florida Keys.

But Irma is so wide that authorities were bracing for destructive storm surges on both coasts and the Keys, the chain of low-lying islands that stretch south of Miami toward Cuba.

And hurricane-force winds are expected to lash the peninsula as it rolls north toward Georgia.

In Key West, police opened a "shelter of last resort" for those fool-hardy enough to ignore mandatory evacuation orders.

Flood-prone Miami Beach, also under mandatory evacuation order, has been emptied of people but is bracing for high waters.

"Nobody can be prepared for a storm surge. They can destroy everything," said David Wallack, a 67-year-old salsa club owner attempting to secure his property on the city's Ocean Drive.

"We just can pray for the best. You put what you can in a suitcase and hope."

Across the peninsula the Gulf coast city of Fort Myers also was battening down for Irma's screaming winds, rain and storm surge.

"This is a worst case scenario for our city. And our region," the city's mayor, Randall Henderson said on CNN. "We're taking it very seriously. We are prepared for it."

Warning that Irma would be worse than Hurricane Andrew -- which killed 65 people in 1992 -- Florida's governor said all 20.6 million Floridians should prepare to flee.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic snaked north out of the state, with mattresses, gas cans and kayaks strapped to car roofs.

Cuban-American Orlando Reyes, 82, was forced to flee his assisted living facility in Miami Beach.

"It is frightening," he told AFP at a shelter in Miami. "We had to leave without a cent, without taking a bath, or bringing anything."

The storm smashed through a string of Caribbean islands, beginning with tiny Barbuda on Wednesday, followed by the holiday islands of St Barts and St Martin.

Also affected were the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and the Turks and Caicos. The Bahamas were spared Irma's worst.

French state-owned reinsurer CCR estimated Irma had caused 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) worth of damage to homes, vehicles and businesses in the territories of Saint Martin and Saint Barts.

"Houses are smashed, the airport is out of action," St Barts resident Olivier Toussaint told AFP.

"Upside-down cars are in the cemeteries. Boats are sunk in the marina, shops are destroyed."

Meteorologists meanwhile were closely monitoring two other Atlantic storms.

Jose, another powerful Category 4 storm, was heading towards the same string of Caribbean islands Irma has pummeled in recent days.

The deteriorating weather grounded aircraft and prevented boats from bringing relief supplies to hard-hit islands.

Katia, which made landfall in eastern Mexico late Friday as a Category One hurricane, had weakened by Saturday to a tropical depression. Mexico reported two people killed by mudslides unleashed by the heavy rains.

The US military was mobilizing thousands of troops and deploying several large ships to aid with evacuations and humanitarian relief, as the Air Force removed scores of planes from the southern United States.

At least two people were killed in Puerto Rico, and many residents were without power.

Another four people were killed on the US Virgin Islands, with a number of badly injured people airlifted to Puerto Rico.

A child died in Barbuda, where 30 percent of properties were demolished and the entire island has been evacuated.

France said at least 10 people had been killed across its Caribbean territories, with seven more missing. There were 112 people injured, two seriously.

On the Dutch side of Saint Martin island, two people died.

In northwest Haiti, a motorcyclist was missing after trying to cross a flooded river and a number of roads were washed out. </s> Hurricane Irma ploughed into Cuba's northern coast on Friday night (8 September), hitting the island with 160mph winds and heavy rain.

The Category 5 storm – the first to hit the island since 1924 – struck the Camaguey Archipelago after around a million people evacuated their homes.

It comes after the hurricane killed at least 21 people as it passed over the eastern Caribbean, leaving a path of destruction in its wake.

As of early Saturday morning, the storm was still making its way across Cuba with the full extent of the damage unclear.

Choppy seas, grey skies, sheets of rain, bending palm trees, huge waves crashing over sea walls and downed power lines filled state-run television's evening news cast, Reuters reported.

"There are really strong gusts of wind. It is pouring off and on, and the lights are out," Anaida Gonzalez, a retired nurse in the Camaguey province, told Reuters.

CNN reporter Patrick Oppmann, who has been live-tweeting about the storm while in Cuba, said the hurricane had given the island "holy hell".

"Water is half way up the 1st floor of house I am in. We should be fine, many others will not," he tweeted early Saturday morning.

With power out in many towns and villages on the island, Oppmann went on to describe watching in the pitch-black darkness as waves "roll down" a street he had walked along just a day before.

He added: "Irma is giving Cuba holy hell right now. Winds keep getting stronger."

Winds were so strong they even broke the country's meteorological equipment, he added.

Meteorologists warned that scenes of far greater devastation were likely to emerge as Irma worked her way along the northern coast westward.

It is then forecast to change direction and head north towards the US state of Florida, where a state of emergency has been called.

US authorities have ordered 5.6m people – more than 25% of Florida's population — to evacuate, with the storm set to hit the state on Sunday morning.

"This is as real as it gets. Nowhere in the Florida Keys will be safe. You still have time to evacuate," the US National Weather Service warned in a tweet. </s> Hurricane Irma strengthened and made landfall in Cuba as a Category 5 storm, as millions of Florida residents were ordered to evacuate after the storm killed 22 people in the eastern Caribbean and left destruction in its wake.

Irma struck Camaguey Archipelago on Cuba's north-central Atlantic coast packing 260km/h winds late on Friday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Category 5 is the NHC's most powerful designation.

Irma, one of the fiercest Atlantic storms in a century, was expected to hit Florida on Sunday morning, bringing massive damage from wind and flooding to the fourth-largest state by population.

The scenes along Cuba's coast were gradually coming to resemble horrors of other Caribbean islands over the last week as Irma barreled in for a direct hit at Ciego de Avila province around midnight.

READ MORE: Deaths and destruction as Hurricane Irma powers through

Choppy seas, grey skies, sheets of rain, bending palm trees, huge waves crashing over sea walls and downed power lines filled state-run television’s evening news cast.

Irma was forecast to bring dangerous storm surges of up to three metres on parts of Cuba's northern coast and the central and northwestern Bahamas.

Meteorologists warned that by Saturday morning, scenes of far greater devastation were sure to emerge as Irma worked her way along the northern coast westward through Sancti Spiritus and Villa Clara provinces where it is forecast to turn northward toward Florida.

The area is home to pristine keys with more than 50 hotels and beaches.

Irma was about 485km southeast of Miami, the NHC said in its latest advisory.

With the storm barreling toward the United States, officials ordered an historic evacuation in Florida that has been made more difficult by clogged highways, gasoline shortages and the challenge of moving older people.

The United States has been hit by only three Category 5 storms since 1851, and Irma is far larger than the last one in 1992, Hurricane Andrew, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

"We are running out of time. If you are in an evacuation zone, you need to go now. This is a catastrophic storm like our state has never seen," Governor Rick Scott told reporters, adding the effects would be felt from coast to coast in the state.

A total of 5.6 million people, or 25 percent of the state's population, were ordered to evacuate Florida, according to the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

US President Donald Trump said in a videotaped statement that Irma was "a storm of absolutely historic destructive potential" and called on people to heed recommendations from government officials and law enforcement.

Irma was set to hit the United States two weeks after Hurricane Harvey, a powerful Category 4 storm, struck Texas, killing about 60 people and causing property damage estimated at up to $180bn in Texas and Louisiana.

Officials were preparing a massive response, the head of FEMA said.

About 9 million people in Florida may lose power, some for weeks, said Florida Power & Light Co, which serves almost half of the state's 20.6 million residents.

Amid the exodus, nearly one-third of all gas stations in Florida's metropolitan areas were out of gasoline, with scattered outages in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, according to Gasbuddy.com, a retail fuel price tracking service.

READ MORE: Irma heads to Florida, kills 22 across Caribbean

In Fort Lauderdale, most large grocery, hardware and supply stores were closed and do not plan to open until early next week, after the hurricane has passed.

A shelter in southwest Miami filled to capacity just hours after it opened its doors, with people there recalling Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the most destructive to ever hit the state.

Mandatory evacuations on Georgia's Atlantic coast and some of South Carolina's barrier islands were due to begin on Saturday. Virginia and Alabama were under states of emergency.

The governors of North and South Carolina warned residents to remain on guard even as the storm took a more westward track, saying their states still could experience severe weather, including heavy rain and flash flooding, early next week.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 ended slightly lower as investors braced for potential damage and massive insurance claims from Irma.

Many economists are predicting that third-quarter gross domestic product will take a hit due to the hurricanes.

As it roared in from the east, Irma ravaged small islands in the northeastern Caribbean, including Barbuda, St. Martin and the British and US Virgin Islands, flattening homes and hospitals and ripping down trees.

But even as they came to grips with the massive destruction, residents of the islands faced the threat of another major storm, Hurricane Jose.

Jose, expected to reach the northeastern Caribbean on Saturday, was an extremely dangerous storm nearing Category 5 status, with winds of up to 250km/h, the NHC said on Friday. </s> The Latest on Hurricane Irma (all times local):

The National Hurricane Center says the eye of Irma is moving over the Camaguey Archipelago of Cuba as a Category 5 hurricane.

The center says Irma made landfall there late Friday and has maximum sustained winds of 160 mph (257 kph). The hurricane is about 275 miles (443 kilometers) from Miami and moving about 12 mph (19.3 kph) toward the west.

In the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Katia made landfall late Friday north of Tecolutla, Mexico and weakened to a tropical storm, with winds reaching 45 mph (72.4 kph).

In the Atlantic, Hurricane Jose is a Category 4 hurricane, about 240 miles (386 kilometers)east-southeast of the Northern Leeward Islands, moving roughly westward at 14 mph (23 kph)with winds reaching 150 mph.

A newly strengthened Irma is taking aim at south Florida with 160 mph (257 kph) winds after battering Cuba and leaving more than 20 dead across the Caribbean, as another hurricane follows close behind.

Irma regained Category 5 status late Friday. Thousands of people in the Caribbean fought desperately to find shelter or escape their storm-blasted islands, and more than 6 million people in Florida and Georgia were warned to leave their homes.

Many residents and tourists were left reeling after the storm ravaged some of the world's most exclusive tropical playgrounds, known for their turquoise waters and lush green vegetation. Among them: St. Martin, St. Barts, St. Thomas, Barbuda and Anguilla.

Irma threatened to push its way northward from one end of Florida to the other beginning Sunday morning. </s> Damage along the Camaguey Archipelago, which was pummelled by wind speeds of more than 160 mph (260km/h), is expected to mirror the carnage wrought across other Caribbean islands as the Category 5 storm heads for a direct hit on Ciego de Avila province. Irma’s winds are so devastating they destroyed Cuban meteorological equipment used to record wind speeds. Power lines and palm trees have been uprooted by the hurricane as sheets of rain lash the area rand huge waves crash over sea walls. But meteorologists have warned scenes of far greater devastation are sure to emerge as Irma works her way along the northern coast westward through Sancti Spiritus and Villa Clara provinces where it is forecast to turn north toward Florida.

In Gibara, province of Holguin, first reports of damage are coming in with local hospitals and schools suffering structural damage along with other properties and businesses. The area around the pier has also been badly damaged by the heavy seas where officials reported waves were reaching a terrifying 26ft (8m). Irma, one of the fiercest Atlantic storms in a century, is expected to hit Florida on Sunday morning, bringing massive damage from wind and flooding to the fourth-largest state by population. Irma was about 275 miles (440 km) south-southeast of Miami, the US National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory.

With the storm barreling toward the United States, officials ordered an historic evacuation in Florida that has been made more difficult by clogged highways, gasoline shortages and the challenge of moving older people. The United States has been hit by only three Category 5 storms since 1851, and Irma is far larger than the last one in 1992, Hurricane Andrew, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Governor Rick Scott said: “We are running out of time. If you are in an evacuation zone, you need to go now. This is a catastrophic storm like our state has never seen.”

A total of 5.6 million people, or 25 percent of the state's population, were ordered to evacuate Florida, according to the Florida Division of Emergency Management. US President Donald Trump said in a videotaped statement that Irma was "a storm of absolutely historic destructive potential" and called on people to heed recommendations from government officials and law enforcement. Irma will hit the US two weeks after Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm, struck Texas, killing about 60 people and causing property damage estimated at up to £150 billion in Texas and Louisiana.

Officials were preparing a massive response, the head of FEMA said. As it roared in from the east, Irma ravaged small islands in the northeastern Caribbean, including Barbuda, St Martin and the British and US Virgin Islands, flattening homes and hospitals and ripping down trees. But even as they came to grips with the massive destruction, residents of the islands faced the threat of another major storm, Hurricane Jose. The NHC Jose, expected to reach the northeastern Caribbean later today, is an extremely dangerous storm nearing Category 5 status, with winds of up to 150 mph (240km/h). </s> As Hurricane Irma continued its devastating run in the Caribbean, Cuba evacuated dolphins held in a dolphinarium in the north of the country, where Irma made landfall Friday night.

The six dolphins were wrapped in wet towels to ensure healthy travel and put on helicopters that took the dolphins to the province of Cienfuegos, the Mirror reported.

As of Friday, they were put in a swimming pool — but they could be moved again if the hurricane’s effects make that necessary, officials said.

Dolphinarum manager Gonzalo Carrero Escobar said the pool offered the dolphins “similar conditions to their natural life.” But he added that, “If the weather situation does not allow us to keep them there, they will be displaced to the saltwater swimming pool of a hotel.”

Early Friday, waves as high as 23 feet were slamming into Cuba’s eastern towns, prompting flooding and power outages, the Miami Herald reported.

“Luckily we have only experienced rains, sea penetrations and some winds … but sincerely, nothing compared to what we were expecting,” a local radio station in Baracoa city wrote on Facebook, according to the Herald. 25,000 people reportedly evacuated from the city.

But just as Cubans thought they had escaped the devastation seen on other Caribbean islands, the full strength of Irma slammed the country again Friday evening, hitting Ciego de Avila province around midnight.

As it struck the country with 160 mph winds, on its way toward Florida, Irma was upgraded from Category 4 to Category 5 – the most powerful designation by the National Hurricane Center.

And Irma’s effects in Cuba reportedly began to look a lot like the devastation seen on other Caribbean islands over the last week.

The full extent of the damage in Cuba remained unclear early Saturday, but devastating scenes were expected to be revealed as the hurricane moved through popular tourist destinations along Cuba’s northern coast, with more than 50 hotels, Reuters reported.

Anaida Gonzalez, a retired nurse hunkered down in the central province of Camaguey, told Reuters that “There are really strong gusts of wind. It is pouring off and on, and the lights are out.”

Irma is now on a path to hit Florida, potentially on Sunday. Florida officials asked around 5.6 million people to evacuate ahead of landfall to avoid a potential catastrophe. </s> Caibarién, Cuba (CNN) Recovery efforts are underway in Cuba a day after Hurricane Irma smashed into the country's north en route towards the Florida Keys .

Hurricane-force winds of 125 mph (over 200 kp/h) whipped roofs clean off buildings, ripped trees from the ground and forced evacuations along the coast.

As Irma made landfall, it once again regained strength to a Category 5 storm, flooding low-lying areas of the capital, Havana.

As dusk fell on Saturday, the churning seas had moved two blocks inland from the city's popular seafront boulevard, with waters expected to permeate further as the surge grew, Reuters reported. So far there have been no reports of deaths in Cuba.

Water battered the city's pier and flooding some low-lying areas of Havana on Saturday.

The Cuban government had prepared by staging emergency supplies and building equipment ahead of the arrival of Irma.

Elsewhere in the Caribbean, the US has evacuated approximately 1,200 Americans from Dutch-administered St. Marteen in the last 24 hours, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement on Sunday.

The first to be evacuated were those with urgent medical care before flights were suspended due to Hurricane Jose. The State Department said it intends to resume efforts to get US citizens out when it is safe to do so.

There were 24 deaths attributed to Irma throughout the Caribbean.

A hurricane warning remained in place as of 5 a.m. ET on Sunday for the Cuban provinces of Ciego de Avila, Sancti Spiritus, Villa Clara, Matanzas, and La Habana.

The latest advisory from the US National Hurricane Center said that the searing winds and vicious rain conditions would continue in Cuba throughout Sunday morning as the storm barrels through the Florida Keys and towards the United States mainland.

Irma's blinding rain and powerful winds began pummeling Caibarién, a small coastal city about 320 kilometres east of Havana, late Friday as the outer bands of the massive storm knocked out power in a town that normally would be busy with tourists.

By dawn Saturday, waves were rolling down the town's main street, and within hours the whole town was flooded with several feet of water.

Most people in the coastal area live in one-story homes, putting them at great risk as floodwaters rose to roof level in some places. Residents were overwhelmed by the damage and said recovery will take time.

Many people had left town over the past couple of days, with all foreigners urged to evacuate. Those who remained were prepared, though they knew this was a storm like few had ever experienced, they told CNN.

Elsewhere in the country, Irma struck the archipelago north of Cuba's Camaguey and Ciego de Avila provinces with gusts so strong they destroyed an instrument used to measure wind, Cuba's meteorological agency reported.

Hurricane-strength winds later were recorded in the northern half of Camaguey province, the agency said.

As Irma advanced over neighboring Ciego de Avila province, waves of between 16-and 23 feet waves (5 to 7 meters) were recorded.

Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to hit Camaguey in 85 years, according to the province's state media radio station.

In the resort town of Varadero in the Matanzas province, 14,500 foreign tourists rode out the storm, according to state-run news organization Granma.

A string of small Caribbean islands was left reeling by Irma. Many islands were still assessing the damage, even as they prepared for the arrival of another major storm, Hurricane Jose.

Of the 24 deaths blamed on Irma in the Caribbean, nine were in various French territories, one in Barbuda, one in Anguilla, two in St. Maarten, four in the British Virgin Islands, four in the US Virgin Islands, and three in Puerto Rico.

Antigua, Barbuda's sister island and home to about 80,000 people, was spared the brunt of the storm. Many residents there have been evacuated ahead of Jose.

Looting broke out on the island, home to about 72,000 people, and security forces were deployed to deal with the problem, French and Dutch authorities said Friday.

Irma caused roughly 1.2 billion euros ($1.44 billion) of insured damage in the French portion of St. Martin and in St. Barts, French state-owned insurer CCR said Saturday.

"This amount covers damages to homes, vehicles and businesses (including operating losses) that are covered by the natural disaster compensation scheme," CCR said.

Just to the north, Anguilla, a 90-square kilometer island that is among several British overseas territories in the Caribbean, "received the hurricane's full blast," according to UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister Alan Duncan.

"Apart from the structural damage, there have sadly been reports of casualties and fatalities," he said. "I am truly heartbroken by this news."

Puerto Rico, an unincorporated US territory, managed to avoid a direct hit from Irma but suffered strong winds and torrential rains. Hundreds of thousands of people remained without power on Friday.

Strong winds and heavy rain also lashed the Dominican Republic, Haiti and the low-lying Turks and Caicos Islands Thursday into Friday. The Turks and Caicos' capital island of Grand Turk suffered "quite a bit of damage," including to part of a hospital's roof, Gov. John Freeman told CNN on Friday.
Hurricane Irma regains category 5 strength just before it makes landfall on Cuba's Camaguey Archipelago.