title: DirectX

text: The DirectX software development kit (SDK) consists of runtime libraries in redistributable binary form, along with accompanying documentation and headers for use in coding. Originally, the runtimes were only installed by games or explicitly by the user. Windows 95 did not launch with DirectX, but DirectX was included with Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2. Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 both shipped with DirectX, as has every version of Windows released since. The SDK is available as a free download. While the runtimes are proprietary, closed-source software, source code is provided for most of the SDK samples. Starting with the release of Windows 8 Developer Preview, DirectX SDK has been integrated into Windows SDK.


title: DirectX

text: In late 1994, Microsoft was ready to release Windows 95, its next operating system. An important factor in the value consumers would place on it was the programs that would be able to run on it. Microsoft employee Alex St. John had been in discussions with various game developers asking how likely they would be to bring their MS-DOS games to Windows 95, and found the responses mostly negative; programmers had found that the Windows environment did not provide the necessary features which were available under MS-DOS using BIOS routines or direct hardware access. There were also strong fears of compatibility; a notable case of this was from "Disney's Animated Storybook: The Lion King" which was based on the WinG programming interface. Due to numerous incompatible graphics drivers from new Compaq computers that were not tested with the WinG interface which came bundled with the game, it crashed so frequently on many desktop systems that parents had flooded Disney's call-in help lines.


title: DirectX

text: St. John recognized the resistances for game development under Windows would be a limitation, and recruited two additional engineers, Craig Eisler and Eric Engstrom, to develop a better solution to get more programmers to develop games for Windows. The project was codenamed the Manhattan Project, as in relation to the World War II project of the same name, the idea was to displace the Japanese-developed video game consoles with personal computers running Microsoft's operating system. It had initially used the radiation symbol as its logo but Microsoft asked the team to change the logo. Management did not agree to the project as they were already writing off Windows as a gaming platform, but the three committed towards this project's development. Their rebellious nature led Brad Silverberg, the senior vice president of Microsoft's office products, to name the trio the "Beastie Boys".


title: DirectX

text: Most of the work by the three was done among other assigned projects starting near the end of 1994. Within four months and with input from several hardware manufacturers, the team had developed the first set of application programming interfaces (APIs) which they presented at the 1995 Game Developers Conference. The SDK included libraries implementing DirectDraw for bit-mapped graphics, DirectSound for audio, and DirectPlay for communication between players over a network. Furthermore, an extended joystick API already present in Windows 95 was documented for the first time as DirectInput, while a description of how to implement the immediate start of the installation procedure of a software title after inserting its CD-ROM, a feature called AutoPlay, was also part of the SDK. The "Direct" part of the library was so named as these routines bypassed existing core Windows 95 routines and accessed the computer hardware only via a hardware abstraction layer (HAL). Though the team had named it the "Game SDK" (software development kit), the name "DirectX" came from one journalist that had mocked the naming scheme of the various libraries. The team opted to continue to use that naming scheme and call the project DirectX.


title: DirectX

text: The first version of DirectX was released in September 1995 as the Windows Games SDK. Its DirectDraw component was the Win32 replacement for the DCI and WinG APIs for Windows 3.1. DirectX allowed all versions of Microsoft Windows, starting with Windows 95, to incorporate high-performance multimedia. Eisler wrote about the frenzy to build DirectX 1 through 5 in his blog.


title: DirectX

text: To get more developers on board DirectX, Microsoft approached id Software's John Carmack and offered to port "Doom" and "Doom 2" from MS-DOS to DirectX, free of charge, with id retaining all publishing rights to the game. Carmack agreed, and Microsoft's Gabe Newell led the porting project. The first game was released as "Doom 95" in August 1996, the first published DirectX game. Microsoft promoted the game heavily with Bill Gates appearing in ads for the title.


title: DirectX

text: DirectX 2.0 became a component of Windows itself with the releases of Windows 95 OSR2 and Windows NT 4.0 in mid-1996. Since Windows 95 was itself still new and few games had been released for it, Microsoft engaged in heavy promotion of DirectX to developers who were generally distrustful of Microsoft's ability to build a gaming platform in Windows. Alex St. John, the evangelist for DirectX, staged an elaborate event at the 1996 Computer Game Developers Conference which game developer Jay Barnson described as a Roman theme, including real lions, togas, and something resembling an indoor carnival. It was at this event that Microsoft first introduced Direct3D, and demonstrated multiplayer "MechWarrior 2" being played over the Internet.


title: DirectX

text: The DirectX team faced the challenging task of testing each DirectX release against an array of computer hardware and software. A variety of different graphics cards, audio cards, motherboards, CPUs, input devices, games, and other multimedia applications were tested with each beta and final release. The DirectX team also built and distributed tests that allowed the hardware industry to confirm that new hardware designs and driver releases would be compatible with DirectX.


title: DirectX

text: Prior to DirectX Microsoft had added OpenGL to their Windows NT platform. OpenGL had been designed as a cross-platform, window system independent software interface to graphics hardware by Silicon Graphics, Inc. to bring 3D graphics programming into the mainstream of application programming. Besides it could also be used for 2D graphics and imaging and was controlled by the Architectural Review Board (ARB) which included Microsoft. Direct3D was intended to be a Microsoft controlled alternative to OpenGL, focused initially on game use. As 3D gaming grew game developers were discovering that OpenGL could be used effectively for game development. At that point a "battle" began between supporters of the cross-platform OpenGL and the Windows-only Direct3D. Incidentally, OpenGL was supported at Microsoft by the DirectX team. If a developer chose to use the OpenGL 3D graphics API in computer games, the other APIs of DirectX besides Direct3D were often combined with OpenGL because OpenGL does not include all of DirectX's functionality (such as sound or joystick support).


title: DirectX

text: In a console-specific version, DirectX was used as a basis for Microsoft's Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One console API. The API was developed jointly between Microsoft and Nvidia, which developed the custom graphics hardware used by the original Xbox. The Xbox API was similar to DirectX version 8.1, but is non-updateable like other console technologies. The Xbox was code named DirectXbox, but this was shortened to Xbox for its commercial name.


title: DirectX

text: In 2002, Microsoft released DirectX 9 with support for the use of much longer shader programs than before with pixel and vertex shader version 2.0. Microsoft has continued to update the DirectX suite since then, introducing Shader Model 3.0 in DirectX 9.0c, released in August 2004.


title: DirectX

text: As of April 2005, DirectShow was removed from DirectX and moved to the Microsoft Platform SDK instead.


title: DirectX

text: Real-time raytracing was announced as DXR in 2018. Support for compiling HLSL to SPIR-V was also added in the DirectX Shader Compiler the same year.


title: DirectX

text: The original logo resembled a deformed radiation warning symbol. Controversially, the original name for the DirectX project was the "Manhattan Project", a reference to the US nuclear weapons initiative. Alex St. John, head of Microsoft DirectX evangelism at the time, claims that the connotation of the ultimate outcome of the Manhattan Project (the nuclear bombing of Japan) is intentional, and that DirectX and its sister project, the Xbox (which shares a similar logo), were meant to displace Japanese videogame-makers from their dominance of the video game industry. However, Microsoft publicly denies this account, instead claiming that the logo is merely an artistic design.


title: DirectX

text: DirectX functionality is provided in the form of COM-style objects and interfaces. Additionally, while not DirectX components themselves, managed objects have been built on top of some parts of DirectX, such as Managed Direct3D and the XNA graphics library on top of Direct3D 9.


title: DirectX

text: DirectX 9 was released in 2002 for Windows 98, Me, and XP, and currently is supported by all subsequent versions. Microsoft continues to make changes in DirectX 9.0c, causing support to be dropped for some of the aforementioned operating systems. As of January 2007, Windows 2000 or XP is required. This also introduced Shader Model 2.0 containing Pixel Shader 2.0 and Vertex Shader 2.0. Windows XP SP2 and newer include DirectX 9.0c, but may require a newer DirectX runtime redistributable installation for DirectX 9.0c applications compiled with the February 2005 DirectX 9.0 SDK or newer.


title: DirectX

text: A major update to DirectX API, DirectX 10 ships with and is only available with Windows Vista (launched in late 2006) and later. Previous versions of Windows such as Windows XP are not able to run DirectX 10-exclusive applications. Rather, programs that are run on a Windows XP system with DirectX 10 hardware simply resort to the DirectX 9.0c code path, the latest available for Windows XP computers.


title: DirectX

text: Changes for DirectX 10 were extensive. Many former parts of DirectX API were deprecated in the latest DirectX SDK and are preserved for compatibility only: DirectInput was deprecated in favor of XInput, DirectSound was deprecated in favor of the Cross-platform Audio Creation Tool system (XACT) and additionally lost support for hardware accelerated audio, since the Vista audio stack renders sound in software on the CPU. The DirectPlay DPLAY.DLL was also removed and was replaced with dplayx.dll; games that rely on this DLL must duplicate it and rename it to dplay.dll.


title: DirectX

text: In order to achieve backwards compatibility, DirectX in Windows Vista contains several versions of Direct3D:


title: DirectX

text: Direct3D 10.1 is an incremental update of Direct3D 10.0 which shipped with, and required, Windows Vista Service Pack 1, which was released in February 2008. This release mainly sets a few more image quality standards for graphics vendors, while giving developers more control over image quality. It also adds support for cube map arrays, separate blend modes per-MRT, coverage mask export from a pixel shader, ability to run pixel shader per sample, access to multi-sampled depth buffers and requires that the video card supports Shader Model 4.1 or higher and 32-bit floating-point operations. Direct3D 10.1 still fully supports Direct3D 10 hardware, but in order to utilize all of the new features, updated hardware is required.


title: DirectX

text: Microsoft unveiled DirectX 11 at the Gamefest 08 event in Seattle. The Final Platform Update launched for Windows Vista on October 27, 2009, which was a week after the initial release of Windows 7, which launched with Direct3D 11 as a base standard.


title: DirectX

text: Major scheduled features including GPGPU support (DirectCompute), and Direct3D 11 with tessellation support and improved multi-threading support to assist video game developers in developing games that better utilize multi-core processors. Parts of the new API such as multi-threaded resource handling can be supported on Direct3D 9/10/10.1-class hardware. Hardware tessellation and Shader Model 5.0 require Direct3D 11 supporting hardware. Microsoft has since released the Direct3D 11 Technical Preview. Direct3D 11 is a strict superset of Direct3D 10.1 — all hardware and API features of version 10.1 are retained, and new features are added only when necessary for exposing new functionality. This helps to keep backwards compatibility with previous versions of DirectX.


title: DirectX

text: DirectX 12 was announced by Microsoft at GDC on March 20, 2014, and was officially launched alongside Windows 10 on July 29, 2015.


title: DirectX

text: The primary feature highlight for the new release of DirectX was the introduction of advanced low-level programming APIs for Direct3D 12 which can reduce driver overhead. Developers are now able to implement their own command lists and buffers to the GPU, allowing for more efficient resource utilization through parallel computation. Lead developer Max McMullen stated that the main goal of Direct3D 12 is to achieve "console-level efficiency on phone, tablet and PC". The release of Direct3D 12 comes alongside other initiatives for low-overhead graphics APIs including AMD's Mantle for AMD graphics cards, Apple's Metal for iOS and macOS and Khronos Group's cross-platform Vulkan.


title: DirectX

text: Multiadapter support will feature in DirectX 12 allowing developers to utilize multiple GPUs on a system simultaneously; multi-GPU support was previously dependent on vendor implementations such as AMD CrossFireX or NVIDIA SLI.


title: DirectX

text: DirectX 12 is supported on all Fermi and later Nvidia GPUs, on AMD's GCN-based chips and on Intel's Haswell and later processors' graphics units.


title: DirectX

text: At SIGGRAPH 2014, Intel released a demo showing a computer generated asteroid field, in which DirectX 12 was claimed to be 50–70% more efficient than DirectX 11 in rendering speed and CPU power consumption.


title: DirectX

text: "Ashes of the Singularity" was the first publicly available game to utilize DirectX 12. Testing by "Ars Technica" in August 2015 revealed slight performance regressions in DirectX 12 over DirectX 11 mode for the Nvidia GeForce 980 Ti, whereas the AMD Radeon R9 290x achieved consistent performance improvements of up to 70% under DirectX 12, and in some scenarios the AMD outperformed the more powerful Nvidia under DirectX 12. The performance discrepancies may be due to poor Nvidia driver optimizations for DirectX 12, or even hardware limitations of the card which was optimized for DirectX 11 serial execution; however, the exact cause remains unclear.


title: DirectX

text: In March 2018, DirectX Raytracing (DXR) was announced, capable of real-time ray-tracing on supported hardware, and the DXR API was added in the Windows 10 October 2018 update.


title: DirectX

text: In 2019 Microsoft announced the arrival of DirectX 12 to Windows 7 but only as a plug-in for certain game titles.


title: DirectX

text: Microsoft revealed DirectX 12 Ultimate in March 2020. DirectX 12 Ultimate will unify to a common library on both Windows 10 computers and the Xbox Series X and other ninth-generation Xbox consoles. Among the new features in Ultimate includes DirectX Raytracing 1.1, Variable Rate Shading, which gives programmers control over the level of detail of shading depending on design choices, Mesh Shaders, and Sampler Feedback.


title: DirectX

text: The version number as reported by Microsoft's DxDiag tool (version 4.09.0000.0900 and higher) use the x.xx.xxxx.xxxx format for version numbers. However, the DirectX and Windows XP MSDN page claims that the registry always has been in the x.xx.xx.xxxx format. Therefore, when the above table lists a version as '4.09.00.0904' Microsoft's DxDiag tool may have it as '4.09.0000.0904'.


title: DirectX

text: Various releases of Windows have included and supported various versions of DirectX, allowing newer versions of the operating system to continue running applications designed for earlier versions of DirectX until those versions can be gradually phased out in favor of newer APIs, drivers, and hardware.


title: DirectX

text: APIs such as Direct3D and DirectSound need to interact with hardware, and they do this through a device driver. Hardware manufacturers have to write these drivers for a particular DirectX version's device driver interface (or DDI), and test each individual piece of hardware to make them DirectX compatible. Some hardware devices have only DirectX compatible drivers (in other words, one must install DirectX in order to use that hardware). Early versions of DirectX included an up-to-date library of all of the DirectX compatible drivers currently available. This practice was stopped however, in favor of the web-based Windows Update driver-update system, which allowed users to download only the drivers relevant to their hardware, rather than the entire library.


title: DirectX

text: Prior to DirectX 10, DirectX runtime was designed to be "backward compatible" with older drivers, meaning that newer versions of the APIs were designed to interoperate with older drivers written against a previous version's DDI. The application programmer had to query the available hardware capabilities using a complex system of "cap bits" each tied to a particular hardware feature. Direct3D 7 and earlier would work on any version of the DDI, Direct3D 8 requires a minimum DDI level of 6 and Direct3D 9 requires a minimum DDI level of 7.


title: DirectX

text: However, the Direct3D 10 runtime in Windows Vista cannot run on older hardware drivers due to the significantly updated DDI, which requires a unified feature set and abandons the use of "cap bits".


title: DirectX

text: Direct3D 10.1 introduces "feature levels" 10_0 and 10_1, which allow use of only the hardware features defined in the specified version of Direct3D API. Direct3D 11 adds level 11_0 and "10 Level 9" - a subset of the Direct3D 10 API designed to run on Direct3D 9 hardware, which has three feature levels (9_1, 9_2 and 9_3) grouped by common capabilities of "low", "med" and "high-end" video cards; the runtime directly uses Direct3D 9 DDI provided in all WDDM drivers. Feature level 11_1 has been introduced with Direct3D 11.1.


title: DirectX

text: In 2002, Microsoft released a version of DirectX compatible with the Microsoft .NET Framework, thus allowing programmers to take advantage of DirectX functionality from within .NET applications using compatible languages such as managed C++ or the use of the C# programming language. This API was known as "Managed DirectX" (or MDX for short), and claimed to operate at 98% of performance of the underlying native DirectX APIs. In December 2005, February 2006, April 2006, and August 2006, Microsoft released successive updates to this library, culminating in a beta version called Managed DirectX 2.0. While Managed DirectX 2.0 consolidated functionality that had previously been scattered over multiple assemblies into a single assembly, thus simplifying dependencies on it for software developers, development on this version has subsequently been discontinued, and it is no longer supported. The Managed DirectX 2.0 library expired on October 5, 2006.


title: DirectX

text: During the GDC 2006, Microsoft presented the XNA Framework, a new managed version of DirectX (similar but not identical to Managed DirectX) that is intended to assist development of games by making it easier to integrate DirectX, HLSL and other tools in one package. It also supports the execution of managed code on the Xbox 360. The XNA Game Studio Express RTM was made available on December 11, 2006, as a free download for Windows XP. Unlike the DirectX runtime, Managed DirectX, XNA Framework or the Xbox 360 APIs (XInput, XACT etc.) have not shipped as part of Windows. Developers are expected to redistribute the runtime components along with their games or applications.


title: DirectX

text: No Microsoft product including the latest XNA releases provides DirectX 10 support for the .NET Framework.


title: DirectX

text: There are alternatives to the DirectX family of APIs, with OpenGL, its successor Vulkan, Metal and Mantle having the most features comparable to Direct3D. Examples of other APIs include SDL, Allegro, OpenMAX, OpenML, OpenAL, OpenCL, FMOD, SFML etc. Many of these libraries are cross-platform or have open codebases. There are also alternative implementations that aim to provide the same API, such as the one in Wine. Furthermore, the developers of ReactOS are trying to reimplement DirectX under the name "ReactX".


title: JoJolion

text: In the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, strange structures known colloquially as the Wall Eyes appear near the coast of the town of Morioh, with the ground beneath them gaining the ability to swap traits of objects buried within it. A local college student named Yasuho Hirose finds a mysterious amnesiac youth buried under one of the Wall Eyes, who she decides to temporarily name "Josuke," and the two set out to recover his memories and identity. Yasuho conducts her investigation while leaving the youth in the care of the Higashikata family, hypothesizing that Josuke is connected to a missing doctor named Yoshikage Kira. As Yasuho visits Kira's terminally-ill mother, Holy Joestar-Kira, Josuke learns that he is a fusion of Kira and someone else.


title: JoJolion

text: When Josuke later confronts the patriarch of the family, Norisuke Higashikata IV, over his reasons for taking him in, he learns that the Higashikata family needs Kira's memories to end a family curse that petrifies each of their first children. Kira had been involved with a fruit named the Locacaca, which can heal one part of its consumer's body by weakening another. Norisuke remains unaware that his oldest son Jobin has been illegally obtaining and selling Locacaca in coordination with a group of mysterious stone-based beings called Rock Humans, who seek to eliminate Josuke and ascend the ranks of society.


title: JoJolion

text: Josuke later learns that prior to his awakening, Kira and a certain Josefumi Kujo had grafted a Locacaca branch to a tree the Higashikata orchard, creating a new type of Locacaca that uses another person as collateral for the healing process. After Kira was fatally injured by the Rock Humans, Josefumi used the new Locacaca to cure him as the two of them fell into the site of the future Wall Eyes. Realizing that he is a fusion of Josefumi and Kira, Josuke resolves to retrieve the new Locacaca fruit and use it to cure Holy, just as Kira and Josefumi intended to. Meanwhile, Jobin's mother, Kaato, leaves prison after a 15-year sentence for killing a child to save Jobin's life. Even as Jobin reunites with his mother, he keeps his plot to use the Locacaca branch to cure his own son, Tsurugi, to himself.


title: JoJolion

text: At Norisuke's behest, Josuke meets with a plant appraiser named Rai Mamezuku, who he leads to the Higashikata orchard to identify the Locacaca branch. At the same time, Jobin's alliance with the Rock Humans falters, eventually forcing him to set the orchard ablaze to keep Josuke and the Rock Humans from obtaining the branch. Ultimately, two Rock Humans in an ambulance appear to seize the new Locacaca branch, unaware that Tsurugi has misled both them and Josuke's group using his own Stand; in reality, the branch remains in Jobin's possession. After defeating one of the Rock Humans posing as a doctor, the three heroes plan to hunt down the hospital's director.


title: JoJolion

text: The group encounters an intern at the hospital named Toru, who points them in the direction of hospital director Satoru Akefu. While attempting to pursue him, the three are attacked by Akefu's powerful calamity-based Stand, Wonder of U, being forced to retreat after a bystander is killed. While hiding from the police, Josuke and Mamezuku are again attacked by Wonder of U, leading them to realize that the Stand is triggered by intent to pursue. Josuke deliberately injures himself to be taken to the hospital, intending to make the hospital director pursue him. As he and the hospital director simultaneously pursue Josuke, Mamezuku realizes that Satoru Akefu is the Stand itself. Mamezuku is fatally wounded by Akefu, but reveals the latent Spin within Josuke's ability as he dies.


title: JoJolion

text: Meanwhile, Yasuho pursues her suspicion that the branch is with the Higashikatas, eventually revealing the branch to the family on accident. Norisuke confronts Jobin, who incapacitates him; Jobin himself is killed shortly afterward by calamity. As Toru arrives at the Higashikata estate, Yasuho realizes that he is the Stand User of Wonder of U. Yasuho calls Josuke and informs him of her findings. Akefu escapes Josuke's attack, but Josuke and Yasuho combine their abilities with the power of the Spin to attack Toru with a transient bubble. A gravely-wounded Toru eats a ripening fruit from the branch and attempts to initiate an exchange, only to be pinned to the ground by Kaato. Kaato forces Toru to exchange with Tsurugi and receive his curse, killing both Toru and herself. The last of the new Locacaca branch is destroyed in the process.


title: JoJolion

text: Josuke and Yasuho visit Holy in the hospital after reuniting. Though Yasuho glimpses Josefumi Kujo's mother in the parking lot, Josuke decides not to introduce himself to her, as he has accepted being neither Josefumi nor Kira. The two meet with what remains of the Higashikata family at a cake shop, as the family tries to decide on a cake to celebrate Norisuke's release from the hospital. The family eventually decides to leave the decision to Josuke as Yasuho takes her leave, satisfied that Josuke has found a loving family and a new life.


title: JoJolion

text: "JoJolion" is written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. It premiered in Shueisha's "Ultra Jump" on May 19, 2011, and ended on August 19, 2021, making it the longest running part of the "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" series overall. In the first volume, Araki described the story of "JoJolion" as being the solving of a . Curses, he goes on, are the sins of the ancestors and this makes people , and if this curse continues it will only turn into . Another theme is that from birth we see things as black and white, but this produces a from what humanity really experiences. From these, the "curse" is lifted, this being the goal of the story.


title: JoJolion

text: On the inside cover of volume 2, Araki explained that the "-lion" ending in the title comes from both the Christian concept of blessing and the gospels ("evangelion" in Greek), and the Ancient Greek myth of Pygmalion.


title: JoJolion

text: The first chapter title of each pair is the title that is used in the volumization of "JoJolion". The second title is the title used in the original serialization in "Ultra Jump".


title: JoJolion

text: "JoJolion" won the Grand Prize for Manga Division at the 17th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2013. On Takarajimasha's "Kono Manga ga Sugoi!" list, which surveys people in the manga and publishing industry, named "JoJolion" the 12th best manga series for male readers in 2013. The manga has been nominated for the 26th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2022. "JoJolion" was nominated for the 53rd Seiun Award in the Best Comic category in 2022.


title: JoJolion

text: The first volume of "JoJolion" was the second best-selling manga for its debut week of December 19–25, 2011 with 237,374 copies sold. The second volume ranked third, with 204,791 copies, for the week of April 16–22, 2012. Its third volume debuted at number two for the week of September 17–23, selling 260,080 copies. All three were some of the best-selling manga of 2012; volume one was 46th with 534,996 copies, volume two was 53rd with 516,040, and volume 3 sold 457,791 copies for 69th. Volume four was number two for the week of May 12–18, 2013, selling 224,551 copies in its first week.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread destruction across its path in September 2017. Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Maria two weeks later. At the time, it was considered as the most powerful hurricane on record in the open Atlantic region, outside of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico until it was surpassed by Hurricane Dorian two years later. It was also the third strongest Atlantic hurricane at landfall ever recorded, just behind the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane and Dorian.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: The ninth named storm, fourth hurricane, second major hurricane, and first Category 5 hurricane of the 2017 season, Irma caused widespread and catastrophic damage throughout its long lifetime, particularly in the northeastern Caribbean and the Florida Keys. It was also the most intense hurricane to strike the continental United States since Katrina in 2005, the first major hurricane to make landfall in Florida since Wilma in the same year, and the first Category 4 hurricane to strike the state since Charley in 2004. The word "Irmageddon" was coined soon after the hurricane to describe the damage caused by the hurricane.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Irma developed from a tropical wave near the Cape Verde Islands on August 30. Favorable conditions allowed Irma to rapidly intensify into a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson wind scale by late on August 31. The storm's intensity fluctuated between Categories 2 and 3 for the next several days, due to a series of eyewall replacement cycles. On September 4, Irma resumed intensifying, becoming a Category 5 hurricane by early on the next day. Early on September 6, Irma peaked with 1-minute sustained winds of 180 mph (285 km/h) and a minimum pressure of . Irma was the second-most intense tropical cyclone worldwide in 2017 in terms of barometric pressure, and the strongest worldwide in 2017 in terms of wind speed. Another eyewall replacement cycle caused Irma to weaken back to a Category 4 hurricane, but the storm re-attained Category 5 status before making landfall in Cuba. Although Irma briefly weakened to a Category 2 storm while making landfall on Cuba, the system re-intensified to Category 4 status as it crossed the warm waters of the Straits of Florida, before making landfall on Cudjoe Key on September 10. Irma then weakened to Category 3 status, prior to another landfall in Florida on Marco Island later that day. The system degraded into a remnant low over Alabama and ultimately dissipated on September 13 over Missouri.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: The storm caused catastrophic damage in Barbuda, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Anguilla, and the Virgin Islands as a Category 5 hurricane. The hurricane caused at least 134 deaths: one in Anguilla; one in Barbados; three in Barbuda; four in the British Virgin Islands; 10 in Cuba; 11 in the French West Indies; one in Haiti; three in Puerto Rico; four on the Dutch side of Sint Maarten; 92 in the contiguous United States, and four in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Hurricane Irma was the top Google searched term in the U.S. and globally in 2017.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: The National Hurricane Center (NHC) began monitoring a tropical wave over western Africa on August 26. The tropical wave moved off the coast of the continent late on August 27. Throughout the next two days, showers and thunderstorms associated with the wave became better organized and gradually coalesced into a low-pressure area, as the system passed just south of and then through the Cape Verde Islands on August 29. Around 00:00 UTC on the following day, the system developed into a tropical depression just west of the Cape Verde Islands. Six hours later, the depression intensified into Tropical Storm Irma, based on scatterometer data and satellite estimates. With warm sea surface temperatures and low wind shear, strengthening was anticipated, with the only hindrance being slightly cooler waters and drier air.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: The nascent storm began developing upper-level poleward outflow, as an anticyclone became established over the system, with banding features becoming increasingly evident in satellite images. Early on August 31, shortly after the development of a central dense overcast (CDO) and an eye feature, Irma underwent rapid intensification, becoming a Category 2 hurricane at 18:00 UTC and then a Category 3 hurricane, becoming a major hurricane – around 00:00 UTC on September 1. Within a 48-hour period, the hurricane's intensity had increased by 65 mph (105 km/h). On September 2, a ship passed to the west of the center of Irma, recording maximum winds of , which indicated that the eye of Irma remained compact. A strong high pressure system to the north of Irma caused the storm to move west-southwestward between September 2 and September 4. The first aircraft reconnaissance mission departed from Barbados on the afternoon of September 3, discovering an eye in diameter and surface winds of 115 mph (185 km/h).


title: Hurricane Irma

text: On September 4, after moving into more favorable conditions, Irma strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane. As it continued approaching the Leeward Islands, Irma underwent a second and more robust period of rapid intensification, becoming a Category 5 hurricane by 12:00 UTC on the following day, with winds of 175 mph (280 km/h). The extremely powerful hurricane continued to intensify, with maximum sustained winds peaking at 180 mph (285 km/h) near 18:00 UTC on September 5. Irma acquired annular characteristics around this time, with the storm exhibiting a large, symmetric CDO and an impressive satellite appearance. Irma continued to intensify while approaching the northern Leeward Islands. Almost eight hours later, around 05:45 UTC on September 6, Irma made landfall along the northern coast of Barbuda at peak intensity, with the storm's central minimum pressure having bottomed out at – this was the lowest in the Atlantic since Dean in 2007; the storm also made landfall with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph (285 km/h). Irma continued to maintain its peak intensity until 12:00 UTC on September 6 and made additional successive landfalls on that same day, at 11:15 UTC on Sint Maarten, and at 16:30 UTC on Virgin Gorda, in the British Virgin Islands, though the storm's central pressure had risen slightly prior to its third landfall.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: As the hurricane moved away from the Virgin Islands late on September 6, observations from reconnaissance flights, as well as Doppler radar in San Juan, Puerto Rico, indicated an elliptical eye and double eyewalls. Late on September 6, the cyclone passed about north of Puerto Rico. Moving west-northwestward, Irma closely paralleled the north coast of Hispaniola throughout the day on September 7. After beginning an eyewall replacement cycle, Irma weakened to a Category 4 hurricane as it passed south of the Turks and Caicos Islands early on September 8. This subsequently ended the 60-hour contiguous period of Irma maintaining Category 5 intensity, the second-longest any Atlantic storm had maintained winds above – behind only the 1932 Cuba hurricane. At 05:00 UTC on September 8, Irma made landfall on the island of Little Inagua in the Bahamas with sustained winds of 155 mph (250 km/h). The hurricane then began tracking more to the west due to the intensification of a subtropical ridge to its north. Once the eyewall replacement cycle was complete, Irma began to re-intensify, and it re-attained Category 5 intensity at 18:00 UTC that day east of Cuba as deep convection became more pronounced and organized. The hurricane then made landfall in Cayo Romano, Cuba, at 03:00 UTC on September 9, with winds of 165 mph (270 km/h). This made Irma only the second Category 5 hurricane to strike Cuba in recorded history, after the 1924 Cuba hurricane. As the eye of Irma moved along the northern coast of Cuba, gradual weakening ensued due to land interaction, with the eye becoming cloud-filled and the intensity falling to a high-end Category 2 storm later on September 9.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: After slowing down late on September 9, the hurricane turned northwestward towards Florida around the southwestern edge of the subtropical high to its northeast and a low-pressure system that was located over the continental United States. Moving over the warm waters of the Straits of Florida, Irma quickly restrengthened to a Category 4 hurricane at 06:00 UTC on September 10, as deep convection improved and the eye became better defined. In addition, Irma's wind field continued to increase in size, with hurricane-force winds spanning out a region of and gale-force winds spanning in diameter. The cyclone made landfall in Cudjoe Key, Florida, at 13:00 UTC on September 10, at Category 4 intensity, with winds of 130 mph (215 km/h). Increasing wind shear and land interaction caused the satellite appearance of the storm to become ragged later that day, and Irma weakened to Category 3 intensity before making its seventh and final landfall at 19:30 UTC, in Marco Island, Florida, with sustained winds of 115 mph (185 km/h). Once Irma had moved inland, it began to accelerate to the north-northwest, while rapid weakening began to occur due to the increasing wind shear, land interaction, and dry air, with the storm falling below Category 3 intensity hours after landfall. Passing east of Tampa as a weakening Category 1 hurricane around 06:00 UTC on September 11, Irma continued to weaken as most of the deep convection became more spread out towards the northern semi-circle of the circulation – though it retained a large wind field, with most of Florida experiencing gale-force winds. The system finally weakened to a tropical storm around 12:00 UTC that day as it entered southern Georgia, while acquiring some extratropical characteristics. At 06:00 UTC on September 12, Irma degenerated to a remnant low just as it entered Alabama, as most of the deep convection had diminished. The remnants persisted for another day or so before dissipating over Missouri on September 13.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Given that Irma's forecast track was along much of the Caribbean island chain, hurricane warnings were issued for the northern Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, and parts of Hispaniola on September 5.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In Antigua and Barbuda, residents safeguarded their homes and cleaned up their properties in anticipation of strong winds. Emergency crews were put on standby at public shelters and hospitals by September 5 to assist with any evacuations. Expecting a direct hit, more than half of the residents on Barbuda took shelter, and relief supplies were preemptively mobilized. The National Emergency Management Organization on Saint Lucia urged small craft operators and swimmers to be mindful of forecasts for high surf. Small Craft Warnings and High Surf Advisories were hoisted for Dominica, where residents were urged to remain vigilant of the potential for high waves, landslides, and flooding.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In Guadeloupe, low-lying and cliff-edge homes were evacuated at the threat of flooding and erosion. Schools and public businesses closed on September 5 and 6. Hospitals stocked up on three days' worth of supplies and checked the functionality of their generators. Of the island's 32 communes, 22 activated their emergency plans; 1,500 people were urged to take shelter. The island sustained relatively minor damage and became the base for relief efforts on Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy. Though the core of the hurricane was expected to remain north of the island, a yellow alert was issued for Martinique due to the likelihood of rough seas. The island dispatched relief supplies and military reinforcements to its neighboring islands of Guadeloupe, Saint Martin. and Saint Barthélemy, which faced a greater risk of a direct impact.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: On September 4, Puerto Rico declared a state of emergency. By September 6, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency had deployed response teams in Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands. Supplies, including food rations, medical supplies, and blankets, were pre-staged in strategic locations on the islands for distribution.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: On September 5, the Dominican Republic activated the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, thus providing for humanitarian satellite coverage; the United States and Haiti followed suit two days later. According to officials, 11,200 people were evacuated from vulnerable areas prior to the storm's arrival. Approximately 7,400 tourists were moved to Santo Domingo, away from beach resorts. In Haiti, government officials and aid organizations struggled with early preparation and evacuation efforts. While some officials blamed reluctance and indifference on the part of the population, others "admitted they were not prepared for the onslaught and no mandatory evacuation orders were in place ahead of Irma's approach." Local officials contended that they had not received promised funds, supplies, or equipment from the national government. The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti prepared its 1,000 peacekeepers and engineers to assist.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In the Turks and Caicos, evacuation orders were issued for low-lying areas starting September 5. Schools were closed, government buildings were boarded up, and shelters were opened. Officials spread warnings to residents in English, Creole, and Spanish via social media, radio, SMS text, and WhatsApp. In The Bahamas, the government began preparations the week prior to the hurricane's arrival, including securing national sports facilities to use as shelters. By September 7, the government had evacuated 1,609 people by air from the southern islands, including 365 from Bimini. Controlled cutting of the power supply to southern and central Bahamian islands was conducted in advance of the storm. Shelters were made available, though usage was low due to most evacuees staying with family on other islands. Of the 2,679 foreign tourists still in The Bahamas on September 7, about 1,200 were being housed at Atlantis Paradise Island, one of the most hurricane-ready structures in the country.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In Cuba, meteorologists did not initially predict a direct hit. Fuel conservation was enacted in Camagüey Province to ensure that enough would be available during post-storm power outages. The Civil Defense evacuated nearly one million people from low-lying areas, including thousands of Canadian and European tourists in the Jardines del Rey. Dolphins at a Cayo Guillermo resort were evacuated by helicopter.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: The NHC issued several watches and warnings for the Southeastern United States. The first watches and warnings were issued at 15:00 UTC on September 7, which was a hurricane watch from the Jupiter Inlet to Bonita Beach, including the Florida Keys and Lake Okeechobee. The watches and warnings were extended into Georgia and South Carolina on September 9. At 21:00 UTC on that day, the advisories reached their maximum extent, with a hurricane warning covering the entire east coast of the state, the west coast from Indian Pass southward, and the Florida Keys; a hurricane watch was in place from the Florida–Georgia state line to Edisto Beach, South Carolina; and there were two tropical storm warnings, one in Florida from Indian Pass to the Okaloosa–Walton county line and the other from the Florida–Georgia state line to the South Santee River in South Carolina. Watches and warnings were gradually discontinued as Irma moved inland and weakened, with all of them canceled by early on September 12.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: On September 4, Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency. Governor Scott placed 100 members of the Florida National Guard on duty to assist in preparations. All 7,000 troops were ordered to be on duty by September 8. Officials advised residents to stock their hurricane kits. The state coordinated with electrical companies in order for power outages to be restored as quickly as possible, extending resources such as equipment, fuel, and lodging for the approximately 24,000 restoration personnel who had been activated. Governor Scott suspended tolls on all toll roads in Florida, including the turnpike. All state offices in Florida were closed from September 8 to September 11, while public schools, state colleges, and state universities in all 67 counties were closed during the same period. The Florida Department of Education coordinated with school districts as the need for transportation by school buses and opening shelters arose. By September 9, more than 150 state parks were closed. Throughout the state, almost 700 emergency shelters were opened. The shelters collectively housed about 191,764 people, with more than 40% of them staying in a shelter in South Florida. Additionally, more than 60 special needs shelters were opened, which housed more than 5,000 people by September 9.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Many airports across the state, particularly in Central and South Florida, were closed. Nearly 9,000 flights intending to arrive in or depart from Florida were canceled. Along Florida's coasts, most seaports were closed or opened with restricted access. For the fifth time in its 45-year history, the Walt Disney World Resort was completely closed due to the storm. Its theme parks, water parks, and Disney Springs were all closed by 9:00 p.m. on September 9 and remained closed until September 12. Other Orlando-area theme parks, including Universal Orlando Resort and SeaWorld Orlando, were also closed. The Kennedy Space Center was closed from September 8 to September 15.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: An estimated 6.5 million Floridians were ordered to evacuate, mostly those living on barrier islands or in coastal areas; in mobile or sub-standard homes; and in low-lying or flood prone areas. Mandatory evacuations were ordered for portions of Brevard, Broward, Citrus, Collier, Dixie, Duval, Flagler, Glades, Hendry, Hernando, Indian River, Lee, Martin, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota, Seminole, St. Lucie, Sumter, and Volusia counties. All of Monroe County, where the Florida Keys are located, was placed under a mandatory evacuation. Residents in communities near the southern half of Lake Okeechobee were also ordered to leave. Additionally, voluntary evacuation notices were issued for all or parts of Alachua, Baker, Bay, Bradford, Charlotte, Columbia, Desoto, Hardee, Highlands, Hillsborough, Lake, Manatee, Okeechobee, Osceola, and Polk counties.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: A record 6.5 million Floridians evacuated, making it the largest evacuation in the state's history. Evacuees caused significant traffic congestion on northbound Interstate 95, Interstate 75, and Florida's Turnpike, exacerbated by the fact that the entire Florida peninsula was within the cone of uncertainty in the NHC's forecast path in the days before the storm, so evacuees from both coasts headed north, as evacuees would not be safer by fleeing to the opposite coast. Fuel was in short supply throughout peninsular Florida during the week before Irma's arrival, especially along evacuation routes, leading to hours-long lines at fuel stations and even escorts of fuel trucks by the Florida Highway Patrol.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Use of the left shoulder as a lane for moving traffic was allowed on northbound Interstate 75 from Wildwood to the Georgia state line beginning September 8 and on eastbound Interstate 4 from Tampa to State Road 429 near Celebration for a few hours on September 9. It was the first time that the shoulder-use plan, which was introduced at the start of the 2017 hurricane season, was implemented by the state for hurricane evacuations. The shoulder-use plan was implemented in place of labor- and resource-intensive contraflow lane reversal, in which both sides of an interstate highway are used for one direction of traffic.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, which had been criticized for its response to Hurricane Harvey, took special measures to inspect and secure hazardous materials, especially at Superfund sites. Direct Relief, a disaster relief organization, coordinated with local health centers and provided resources to help facilities on the front lines of Floridian and Puerto Rican communities.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Georgia Governor Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency initially for all six coastal counties on September 6, but eventually expanded the declaration to 94 counties south of Atlanta metropolitan area, and then the entire state on September 10. Atlanta was placed under its first-ever tropical storm warning. Governor Deal ordered mandatory evacuations for all areas east of Interstate 95 on September 7, before extending the order to the entirety of Chatham County and low-lying areas west of I-95 on the following day. In total, 540,000 people on the Georgia coast were ordered to leave. Contraflow lane reversal for Interstate 16 took effect on the morning of September 9 from Savannah to Dublin, Georgia. All Georgia state parks were open for free to evacuees, as was the 800-acre camping area at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Reversible HOT lanes on Interstate 75 in Georgia through south metro Atlanta were open 24 hours northbound with no tolls.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency on September 6, with South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster following suit the same day. Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency on September 8 in order to protect Virginia residents and to mobilize resources in support of neighboring states. Officials in New Orleans stated that there would not be much time for preparations if Irma failed to make the projected northward turn, but that South Texas or Florida would not be a good evacuation destination. On September 10, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam issued an executive order allowing medical professionals in other states to practice in Tennessee to aid Hurricane Irma evacuees. This order also allowed pharmacies to give out 14-day supplies of medicine, and gave women and children from outside the state the ability to participate in the Tennessee Department of Health programs. Bristol Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, and Charlotte Motor Speedway all opened their campgrounds to evacuees free of charge.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In professional sports, the Miami Dolphins–Tampa Bay Buccaneers game scheduled for September 10 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami was postponed to November 19 due to the storm's threat. The Dolphins left early for their road game against the Los Angeles Chargers. The Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees moved their September 11–13 series from Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg to Citi Field in Queens. Minor League Baseball's Florida State League, Carolina League, and Southern League called off their championship finals and as a result, named their division series winners league co-champions. The Miami FC versus San Francisco Deltas match on September 10 was cancelled so the players and staff could prepare for the storm with their families. The Orlando Pride of the National Women's Soccer League rescheduled their September 9 match to September 7. Orlando City SC of Major League Soccer did not have any scheduled home games in September, but was unable to return to training facilities in Orlando due to Hurricane Irma.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In college football, the UCF Knights-Memphis Tigers game scheduled for September 9 was moved to September 30, replacing UCF's game against Maine and Memphis game against Georgia State. UCF also cancelled their game against Georgia Tech on September 16, as UCF's stadium hosted the National Guard. The USF Bulls-Connecticut Huskies football game was also cancelled. The Miami Hurricanes–Arkansas State Redwolves game scheduled for September 9 at Centennial Bank Stadium in Arkansas was canceled due to travel concerns for the University of Miami. The Florida Gators-Northern Colorado Bears match in Gainesville scheduled for September 9 was cancelled. The Florida State Seminoles contest against the Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks was canceled on September 8. The Seminoles' rivalry game with the Hurricanes in Tallahassee, originally scheduled for September 16, was postponed tp October 7. The FIU Panthers game against the Alcorn State Braves was moved up a day and relocated to Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. The Georgia Southern Eagles game against the New Hampshire Wildcats on September 9 was also moved to Legion Field for that day.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: As of September 5, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding was running dangerously low, due to its response to Hurricane Harvey in Texas the previous week, prompting the Trump administration to request an immediate $8 billion in additional funding as Irma approached Florida. Given the rate that current funds are being consumed and the catastrophic damage, the United States Senate almost doubled the requested amount to $15.3 billion, with the understanding that this would only be about 10% of what will be required for responding to Harvey.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Hurricane Irma's path was such that its impact was both far-reaching and devastating, with landfalls in Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Martin, the Bahamas, Cuba, and the United States, all at major hurricane intensity. Furthermore, the size of the storm system meant that destruction was prevalent even in territories well removed from landfall occurrences. Irma is the second-costliest Caribbean hurricane on record, after Maria.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: The eyewall of the hurricane moved over Barbuda near its record peak intensity early on September 6; a weather station observed a wind gust of 160 mph (257 km/h). The same station also recorded a minimum barometric pressure of . The exact state of the island remained unclear for hours after Irma's passage, as downed phone lines ceased all communication with nearby islands. Later that afternoon, Prime Minister Gaston Browne surveyed the territory by helicopter, revealing an effectively uninhabitable island. Irma damaged or destroyed 95% of the structures on Barbuda, including its hospital, schools, and both of its hotels; it completely flattened some residential blocks while submerging others. The destruction rendered the island's sole airport and much of its infrastructure inoperative—including water and telecommunication services—which further hampered relief efforts. Property damage on Barbuda ranged from $150 million to $300 million. A total of three storm-related deaths were reported on the island.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In addition to the catastrophic impact on Barbuda's human residents, concern turned to the storm's effects on the island's wildlife. The island's only endemic bird, the near-threatened Barbuda warbler, numbered less than 2,000 individuals prior to the hurricane. For some time it was unknown if the warbler survived the hurricane or its aftermath; however within a few months it was confirmed that not only did the species survive, but the most of the birds survived the storm. Barbuda's Codrington Lagoon, home to the largest colony of magnificent frigatebirds in the Caribbean, with an estimated 2,500 nesting pairs, was also inundated by the storm surge.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Remaining just outside of Irma's strongest windfield, Antigua sustained less severe damage, in the form of leveled roofs and fences, downed power poles and lines, and uprooted trees. Some street flooding also took place in low-lying areas. Three people were treated for minor storm-related injuries. Forensic disaster analysts from the Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology (CEDIM), a Germany-based risk management agency, estimate that economic losses for Antigua and Barbuda will exceed $120 million.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: On the morning of September 6, Irma's center crossed the island of Saint Martin while the storm was at peak intensity, sweeping away entire structures, submerging roads and cars, and triggering an island-wide blackout. Irma's extreme winds ripped trees out of the ground and sent vehicles and debris from damaged structures scattered across the territory. On the French side of Saint-Martin, entire marinas around Marigot were left in ruins, littered with the stranded remnants of boats that had smashed into each other. A hotel caught on fire, but dangerous conditions and impassable roads prevented firefighters from putting out the blaze. Another hotel lost nearly all of its ground floor. Media images depicted devastated room interiors with furniture hurled around after the winds had shattered their windows. Irma killed four people on the French side of the island and injured 50 others, one of whom was in critical condition. As many as 95% of the buildings there were damaged to some degree; 60% of those were totally uninhabitable. Estimates from CEDIM indicate a minimum of $950 million worth of economic losses. Total losses exceeded €3.5 billion (US$4.17 billion).


title: Hurricane Irma

text: A similar situation unfolded in Sint Maarten, Saint Martin's Dutch half, as intense winds ripped through buildings and lifted vehicles aloft "as if they were matches". The hurricane wreaked havoc on Princess Juliana International Airport, with "huge chunks of the building [strewn] across the runway and a jet bridge snapped in half." It demolished or severely damaged about 70% of Sint Maarten's houses, forcing thousands of residents into public shelters. There were 4 deaths and 23 injuries, 11 of which were serious, in the Dutch territory. Irma is considered the worst natural disaster to hit Sint Maarten; the extent of its damage far exceeded that of any previous hurricane. Total damage were estimated at €2.5 billion (US$2.98 billion).


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Irma left widespread destruction and disastrous flooding along its path over the French island of Saint Barthélemy, southeast of Saint Martin. Describing the extent of the destruction, one local compared it to "a bomb that burned all vegetation," while another said that it were as if the hurricane had effectively "erased the island from the map". Violent seas swept away entire coastal establishments, with one hotel being stripped of all but its foundation. Streets in the capital of Gustavia were turned into rushing rivers, which carried away vehicles and pieces of furniture. The island's fire station was inundated with up to of flood waters. With scores of homes and much of the infrastructure destroyed, the majority of the island's population was left stranded and without water, electricity or phone service. The associated economic losses could exceed $480 million according to CEDIM's analysts.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Preliminary assessments from the French government indicate that Hurricane Irma caused a combined €1.2 billion (US$1.43 billion) in insured losses across the French territories of Saint-Martin and Saint Barts. This total covered private property such as homes, vehicles and businesses (including lost revenue); the extent of the damage to infrastructural and public facilities remains undetermined. Nonetheless, this made Irma one of the costliest natural disasters to hit the French Republic in 50 years.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: On January 30, 2018, roughly five months after Irma, an analysis was published indicating that an anemometer on the island recorded an unofficial gust to before failing.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: The British Overseas Territory of Anguilla saw the eyewall of the storm pass over it on September 6. Many homes and schools were destroyed, and the island's only hospital was badly damaged. The devastation was particularly severe in East End, where the winds uprooted scores of trees and power poles and demolished a number of houses. In The Valley, the island's capital, the hurricane blew out the windows of government buildings. Rough seas inflicted heavy damage upon several bays and harbors, and a seaside restaurant was completely eradicated. About 90% of roads were left impassable. The island's air traffic control tower was damaged, exacerbating the already poor communication with the island. One death was reported on the island. Estimates of losses on the island total at least $190 million.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Large swells ahead of Irma washed ashore debris and sea life in Castries, Saint Lucia, blocking some roads. Seaside roads were inundated with water. One surfer was killed amid rough surf in Barbados after hitting a reef and breaking his neck. Trees were also destroyed. The hurricane's effects, such as violent seas and rattling trees, were intense enough to be detected by seismographs in Guadeloupe. Several houses were damaged. Around 8,000 households and a water supply network on that island lost power during the storm, leaving several communes in the dark without running water. Overall damage was limited to external parts of houses and trees that were blown onto roads and three unmanned ships wrecked by rough seas.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Saint Kitts and Nevis endured similar conditions to other islands. Blustery rainstorms triggered scattered power outages and disabled the island's water system, but per the International Red Cross, the islands were spared the level of destruction seen elsewhere. Still, Prime Minister Timothy Harris stated that property and infrastructure had sustained "significant damage." The Dutch territories of Saba and Sint Eustatius were also struck by the hurricane's winds, resulting in infrastructural damage, water shortages and telecommunication outages. Several houses were left uninhabitable. On Saba, the hurricane also defoliated trees and injured a few people. CEDIM's analysts expect economic losses of $20–65 million for the two islands.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Damage in the British Virgin Islands was extensive. Numerous buildings and roads were destroyed on the island of Tortola, which bore the brunt of the hurricane's core. Four people were confirmed dead. Along Cane Garden Bay, the storm surge submerged several seaside bars and a gas station. Satellite images revealed many of the island's residential zones had been left in ruins. The hurricane passed over Necker Island, also causing severe damage and destroying the mansion of Richard Branson.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Most homes and businesses were destroyed on the island of Jost Van Dyke, the smallest of the B.V.I.'s four main islands. The Governor, Gus Jaspert, who had only been sworn into office 13 days previously, declared a state of emergency - the first time this has ever happened in the Territory. After the storm, restoration of electricity took approximately 5 months.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Irma's effects in the U.S. Virgin Islands were most profound on Saint Thomas, where at least 12 inches (305 mm) of rain fell, and on Saint John. Saint Thomas island suffered widespread structural damage, including to its police station and airport. Patients from the fourth and third floors of Charlotte Amalie's hospital had to be relocated to lower floors due to flooding from roof leaks. Three deaths were attributed to Irma on the island. On nearby Saint Croix, there were communication issues and some damage to the infrastructure. Saint John lost access to ferry and cargo services, along with access to the local airport. Due to its normal reliance on electricity from Saint Thomas, the island was left without power. Total damage from the three islands was at least $1.1 billion.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: The hurricane passed north of Puerto Rico, but still caused significant damage to the United States territory. Along the coast, a tide gauge observed waves up to mean higher high water. Much of the main island experienced sustained tropical storm force winds, with a peak sustained wind speed of at a weather station along San Juan Bay, while the same site observed a peak wind gust of . However, on the island of Culebra, a wind gust of was reported. Mainly due to strong winds, approximately 1.1 million out of 1.5 million of Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority's customers lost electricity. Portions of Puerto Rico received heavy rainfall, with a peak total of in Bayamón, causing seven rivers to reach flood stage, widespread flash flooding, and at least six landslides.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: The most severely affected areas included the offshore islands of Culebra and Vieques, as well as the northeastern, northern, and mountainous portions of the main island. On Culebra, the island suffered an almost complete loss of electrical and water services. At least 30 homes on the island were destroyed, while about 30 other experienced substantial damage. High winds also toppled a number of trees. The only telecommunications tower on Culebra sustained damage, cutting off outside communications for several hours. In rural Loíza, 79 homes were destroyed. Throughout Puerto Rico, 781 out of 1,600 telecommunications towers went out of commission, primarily due to power outages. At least 362,000 customers lost water services. Debris, mostly fallen trees, blocked at least 72 roads. Approximately 25% to 30% of banana, coffee, papaya, and plantain crops were damaged by strong winds, with losses to farmers estimated at $30.6 million. Approximately 1,530 homes experienced at least moderate damage, with 1,448 homes moderately damaged, 32 extensively damaged, and 50 completely destroyed.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Hurricane Irma was attributed to around $1 billion in damage, and the NHC attributed three fatalities to Irma in Puerto Rico, though four deaths were related to the storm. Two people died due to rainstorms ahead of the hurricane: one man died in Orocovis after falling off his ladder while repairing his roof; another man on the coast in Capitanejo died after being struck by lightning. Three nearby fishermen were burned by the same lightning strike, but survived. Two other people died during the hurricane: a woman died while being evacuated from her house in a wheelchair and fell, hitting her head; another person died in a car accident in Canóvanas. Governor Ricardo Rosselló declared the islands of Culebra and Vieques to be disaster areas.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Although spared a direct hit, both the Dominican Republic and Haiti were affected by high winds and heavy rains. A bridge over the Dajabón River connecting the two countries was broken.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In the Dominican Republic, the fishing community of Nagua sustained damage from waves that destroyed homes. 55,000 soldiers were deployed to affected areas to help with the clean-up efforts. By the evening of September 7, the government had counted 2,721 damaged homes.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In Haiti, flooding one meter deep sat in residential neighborhoods in places like Cap-Haïtien, Ouanaminthe, and Gonaives. Mudslides, destroyed homes, flooded crops, and infrastructure damage were reported in the northern part of the country. The total expanse of the flooding stretched from Môle-Saint-Nicolas in the west to the eastern border with the Dominican Republic.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: On the evening of September 7, at 7:30 pm AST (), Hurricane Irma reached the Turks and Caicos Islands. While the eye passed just south of the main islands, crossing over South Caicos and the Ambergris Cays, the most powerful winds on the northern side of the eye swept all of the islands for more than two hours. Communications infrastructure was destroyed.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: On September 8, Minister of Infrastructure Goldray Ewing confirmed that damage to Providenciales was extensive, with the northwestern neighborhood of Blue Hill being "gone". The hospital in the capital, Cockburn Town, was heavily damaged. On South Caicos, 75% of roofs were lost. Total damage was estimated at over $500 million.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In the Bahamas, the eye of the storm passed over Duncan Town, the major settlement of the Ragged Islands chain, on September 8. It also passed "almost directly over" Inagua and South Acklins, according to the Bahamas Department of Meteorology.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Damages were largely confined to the southern islands starting the morning of September 8. On Mayaguana and Great Inagua, downed power lines knocked out communications. On Great Inagua, 70% of homes sustained roof damage, and the island's school lost its roof entirely. The Morton Salt Company's signature production facility, one of the major employers in the country, experienced millions of dollars in damages. The Acklins settlement of Salina Point was cut off from the rest of the island by flooding, while Crooked Island had widespread roof damage. In the northern Bahamas, the worst property damage came on September 10 as the outer bands of the system produced tornadic activity on Grand Bahama and Bimini. Damage and losses across The Bahamas amounted to $135 million.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: While Irma was making landfall in Florida, the ocean was drawn away from some western shorelines of the Bahamas due to strong easterly winds.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Early on September 9, Irma made landfall on the Camagüey Archipelago off the northern coast of Cuba, with sustained winds of 165 mph (270 km/h). The strongest official sustained wind speed was , while the highest wind gust reached ; both were observed near Camila in Ciego de Ávila Province. The weather station at Esmeralda, Camagüey, was damaged, with the wind gauge destroyed. The north coast of Cuba experienced significant coastal flooding due to storm surge and abnormally high tides generated by the storm. Wave heights at Cayo Romano exceeded . Storm surge penetrated as far as inland in some areas of Villa Clara Province. Multiple locations on the island observed at least of rainfall, with a peak total of of precipitation at Topes de Collantes.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: A total of 158,554 homes experienced some degree of damage, of which 14,657 were destroyed; approximately 1.9 million people experienced the direct effects of Irma. The storm partially deroofed 103,691 homes, while 23,560 were completely deroofed. Irma damaged or destroyed 980 health facilities and 2,264 schools. Approximately 3.1 million people experienced disruptions to the water supply, while 246,707 people lost telephone service. About of roads were damaged. Crops also suffered extensively, with nearly affected by the storm. Throughout the country, the hurricane inflicted $13.185 billion in damage and killed 10 people, making Irma the costliest tropical cyclone in Cuban history.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: The tourist areas of Cayo Coco, Cayo Guillermo and Cayo Santa María and the nearby town of Caibarién received the brunt of the storm, with waves rolling through town and the characteristic one-story homes completely flooded. The storm most severely Ciego de Ávila and Villa Clara provinces. Flooding worsened as the hurricane moved west, pushing the storm surge along to the regions around Havana. By the afternoon, limited flooding was occurring in Havana, including around the Malecón. Portions of province coastal flooding surpassing that which was experienced during the Storm of the Century in 1993 and Hurricane Wilma in 2005. In the city of Santa Clara, 39 buildings collapsed. Rainfall resulted in several rivers reaching major flood stage. The town of Cabaiguán in Sancti Spíritus Province in particular suffered extensive inland flooding after the Zaza River swelled.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Hurricane Irma directly affected a major colony of American flamingos on Cuba's northern Cayo Coco. Early reports from "Diario de Cuba" indicated that several hundred flamingos had been killed by the storm, though other estimates ranged as high as several thousand birds.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Hurricane Irma affected multiple states in the South, especially Florida. Except for the Florida Keys, the total damage Irma caused was not as great as government officials and forecasters had warned. Irma weakened after making landfall in Cuba, but strengthened back into a Category 4 prior to hitting the Keys. The Florida Keys suffered the worst of the damage in the United States. After surveying the aftermath of Irma, Florida governor Rick Scott said "I thought we would see more damage" [on the mainland] but said "he witnessed devastation in the Keys". President Donald Trump commented on Twitter that the devastation in some places was "far greater than anyone thought".


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Damage in the United States was estimated at a minimum of $50 billion. At the time, Irma was the fourth costliest tropical cyclone in the United States, behind hurricanes Sandy in 2012, Harvey earlier that year, and Katrina in 2005. However, later in September 2017, Hurricane Maria became the third costliest United States tropical cyclone, causing Irma to fall to the fifth costliest. At least 92 people, 10 directly and 82 indirectly, died throughout the United States in relation to Irma: 84 in Florida, 3 in Georgia, 3 in South Carolina, and 2 in North Carolina.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Irma struck the state less than two weeks after Potential Tropical Cyclone Ten had caused the worst flooding seen in western Florida in 20 years, which further worsened the impacts in the region. The storm's large wind field resulted in strong winds across much of Florida, except for the western Panhandle. The highest reported sustained wind speed was 112 mph (180 km/h) on Marco Island, while the strongest observed wind gust was 142 mph (229 km/h), recorded near Naples, though wind gusts of likely occurred in the Middle Florida Keys. More than 7.7 million homes and businesses in Florida were left without electricity at some point – approximately 73% of state. Generally heavy amounts of rainfall were recorded to the east of the Irma's path, including a peak total of 21.66 in (550 mm) in Fort Pierce. Heavy precipitation – and storm surge, in some instances – overflowed at least 32 rivers and creeks, causing significant flooding, particularly along the St. Johns River and its tributaries. Many homes and businesses suffered damage or destruction, with more than 65,000 structures damaged to some degree in West Central and Southwest Florida alone. Agriculture experienced about $2.5 billion in damage. It was estimated that the cyclone caused at least $50 billion in damage, making Irma the costliest hurricane in Florida history, surpassing Hurricane Andrew.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Throughout Florida, at least 84 people died in storm-related incidents. About half of the deaths occurred from drowning, trauma, and carbon monoxide poisoning. Broward County had 21 fatalities, the most of any county in Florida. Among those deaths were 12 people at The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, a Hollywood nursing home. The patients died from sweltering heat worsened by the lack of air conditioning. The hurricane also left at least 14 deaths in Monroe County; 6 deaths in Orange County; 5 deaths each in Duval, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties; 4 deaths in both Highlands and Hillsborough counties; 3 deaths in both Marion and Polk counties; 2 deaths each in Collier, Hardee, Leon, Pinellas, St. Lucie, and Taylor counties; and 1 death in Hendry, Lake, Lee, Liberty, Manatee, Nassau, Okeechobee, Pasco, Seminole, St. Johns, and Volusia counties.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: With Irma making landfall in Monroe County as a Category 4 hurricane, the Florida Keys were hardest hit area in the state. Strong winds and storm surge flooding caused major damage to buildings, trailer parks, boats, roads, the electricity supply, mobile phone coverage, internet access, sanitation, the water supply and the fuel supply throughout the island chain. An estimated storm surge occurred at Cudjoe Key, where Irma made landfall. Throughout the island, 625 homes sustained minor damage, 52 sustained major damage, and 81 were demolished. On Big Pine Key, one of the most devastated islands, 633 homes received minor impact, 299 homes received major impact, and 473 homes were completely destroyed. Overall in Monroe County, 27,649 homes experienced some degree of damage, including 1,179 homes being destroyed, 2,977 homes receiving major damage, and 5,361 suffering minor damage.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: After devastating the Keys, the storm then struck Collier County as a Category 3 hurricane. Several communities in the county suffered extensive damage, especially along the coast. Throughout the unincorporated areas of the county, 65 homes, including 44 mobile homes, were demolished, while 1,008 homes received major damage. Property damages in unincorporated areas alone reach about $320 million. Lee County was lashed by strong winds and heavy rainfall, which caused prolonged flooding in some areas. More than 24,000 homes suffered some degree of damage, with almost 3,000 homes receiving major damage and 89 homes being destroyed. Damage in the county totaled about $857 million.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Impact in much of the Miami metropolitan area was generally limited to extensive tree and fence damage, as well as widespread power outages. However, in Miami-Dade County, about 1,000 homes received major damage and about 50% of crops were lost. Storm surge caused coastal flooding from Homestead to Downtown Miami, as well as in portions of Miami Beach. Parts of the Florida Heartland were devastated by high winds and flooding, particularly Hendry and Highlands counties. In the former, which has most citrus trees of any county in Florida, about 60% of orange crops were lost. Throughout Hendry County, a total of 451 homes had minor damage, 131 homes suffered major damage, and 42 others were destroyed. In Highlands County, 13,138 businesses and homes were damaged to some degree, with 144 being destroyed, 963 sustaining major damage, and 2,408 receiving minor damage. A gust of 79 mph was recorded at Orlando International Airport in Orange County. A wind gust of 91 mph was also recorded in Orlando at the top of the Disney Contemporary Resort. Strong winds and heavy rainfall in Central Florida left some wind damage and flooding, necessitating evacuations and rescues, including more than 200 people in Orlo Vista after hundreds of homes were flooded. A total of 2,999 business or homes were damaged in Lake County, 7,430 in Seminole County, and 3,457 in Volusia County. Additionally, eight tornadoes touched down in Brevard County, all of which caused damage.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Along much of the Gulf Coast of Florida, to the north of where Irma made landfall, negative storm surges were observed, with water retracting rather than pushing inland, causing little coastal flooding. However, on the opposite coast, extensive erosion and storm surge flooding occurred in the First Coast, especially in Duval and St. Johns counties. In Duval County, the St. Johns River crested at heights that exceeded records set during Hurricane Dora in 1964. Portions of Jacksonville experienced flooding, particularly the downtown area and the Riverside and San Marco neighborhoods, with about 350 people rescued in those sections of the city. Water reached about high in some homes. The city of Jacksonville suffered about $85 million in damage.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In St. Johns County, storm surge left extensive damage to oceanfront properties in Ponte Vedra Beach and Vilano Beach, with several becoming uninhabitable. Additionally, some riverfront businesses in St. Augustine's historic district were flooded due to storm surge from the Matanzas River. In nearby Clay County, rainfall and storm surge combined to cause extensive flooding along portions of the Black Creek and the St. Johns River, with record high crests at several locations along the former. About 350 people and 75 animals were rescued from floodwaters throughout the county. A total of 275 homes were destroyed, 175 were inflicted major damage, and 124 received minor damage.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Three deaths were reported in Georgia due to falling trees and debris, along with widespread wind damage and power outages throughout the state primarily due to fallen trees. On Tybee Island, as well as St. Simons Island the storm surge caused extensive flooding. The tropical storm also did $54 million in damage in the state.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In Charleston, South Carolina, the third highest storm surge on record was recorded, reaching a height of approximately . By of September 12, almost 100,000 had lost power in Upstate South Carolina. Five people died in storm-related incidents across South Carolina, all from indirect incidents. The tropical storm caused $500,000 in the state.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Light damage occurred in other areas, including Tennessee. About 75,000 customers in North Carolina lost power due to Irma. It also did $600,000 in Alabama.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Irma's path through the West Indies and Caribbean, the devastation to roads, harbors and airports significantly impeded the transportation and distribution of relief supplies. Foreign countries moved to provide much of the initial aid. The British, Dutch, French, and United States governments sent warships and planes with supplies and manpower to the region. International leaders, including Dutch King Willem-Alexander and French President Emmanuel Macron, quickly moved to visit affected territories.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Some of the affected countries and territories also offered assistance to each other. Cuba, which sustained extensive damage from the storm, sent 750 health workers to Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, The Bahamas, Dominica, and Haiti. Government officials and members of the public in Puerto Rico delivered assistance and evacuated people stranded on other islands. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services granted special 30-day humanitarian visas for British Virgin Islanders to stay in Puerto Rico. Hundreds of people stranded on Saint Martin were flown to the Dominican Republic on humanitarian grounds.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In response to Hurricane Jose's approach, the Government of Antigua and Barbuda issued a mandatory evacuation on September 9 for any remaining residents on Barbuda. A Miami cargo plane landed on Antigua later that day, carrying over 60 tons (120,000 lbs) of relief supplies for the displaced storm victims—including bottled water, canned food and power generators.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: RFA "Mounts Bay" stationed itself near Anguilla and provided support and relief work to the island with its helicopters and 40 marines and army engineers. The ship delivered 6 tonnes of emergency aid to Anguilla and army engineers repaired a fuel leak at Anguilla's main petrol dump, restored power to the island's hospital and provided shelters for those left homeless by the hurricane. The ship arrived in the British Virgin Islands on September 8, 2017 to provide emergency relief to the islands, including providing shelters, food and water. HMS "Ocean" was diverted from the Mediterranean to provide relief from Gibraltar to the affected British Overseas Territories of Anguilla, British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos on September 7, and aid was also supplied by the Department for International Development from their disaster response centre at Kemble Airfield. As part of a £32 million operation named Operation Ruman, nearly 500 UK military personnel with emergency relief were dispatched from RAF Brize Norton. This included the first deployment of No. 38 Expeditionary Air Wing with 3 RAF aircraft; 2 Airbus A400M Atlas and 1 C130J hercules to support relief efforts.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: The British government also drafted 2 members of the UK police calibre into the region on September 10, and 53 police officers were drafted from RAF Brize Norton to the affected British Overseas Territories on September 15 to help maintain order. UK politicians, including the chairs of the foreign affairs and development select committees, criticized both the government's preparations for the storm and its response as inadequate.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: By September 12, the Department for International Development had delivered more than 40 tonnes of aid into the region, including into Turks and Caicos, and 1,000 UK military troops were deployed in the region as part of relief efforts. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Theresa May, pledged an additional £25 million worth of funding as part of relief efforts in the region on September 13, 2017, and the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Boris Johnson, said that a further 250 UK military personnel would be deployed into the area within the next few days. Anguilla's Chief Minister, Victor Banks, praised the British government's response to the storm and said that Boris Johnson's visit to the island "sends a very positive signal to Anguillans that the British are serious about their response to this very severe hurricane", but went on to say that the current financial commitment from the UK was not substantial enough.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: By September 15, the United Kingdom had over 70 military personnel and 4 police officers in Anguilla and had delivered 15 tonnes of aid to the island. In the British Virgin Islands, Royal Marines had cleared the airfield so that it was operational for the delivery of aid into the islands, with more than 200 British military personnel and 54 UK police officers on the ground and 8 tonnes of aid delivered to the islands. 120 British military personnel were on the ground in Turks and Caicos, and over 150 shelter kits and 720 liters of water were delivered to the islands on September 15.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Amendments to international aid rules by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (or OECD) allowed for the UK government to provide access to £13 billion worth of aid to the affected British Overseas Territories, through the UK's Official Development Assistance (ODA) by November 2017.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: By the afternoon of September 9, Bahamas Power and Light Company had dispatched crews across the archipelago to repair infrastructure damage. The southernmost islands, which were most severely affected by Irma's eye, remained largely inaccessible for days. Assessments showed that 15% of the national telecommunications network had been affected, with at least one tower destroyed. Bahamasair resumed a limited domestic schedule on September 10, with international flights still cancelled due to existing and anticipated destruction at other destinations.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: The worst devastation occurred on Ragged Island, over which Irma's eye had directly passed. After days of the National Emergency Management Agency not being able to physically reach the island, officials were finally able to inspect it; they promptly declared it uninhabitable. Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said that it was the worst disaster area he or his officials had ever seen, and that all remaining residents would need to leave, potentially permanently. Business leaders and other officials called for a new long-term development model to shift the population away from such sparsely-settled islands.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: On Grand Bahama and Bimini, where tornadoes associated with Irma touched down on September 10, more than 100 people were left displaced. Infrastructure damage included docks, parks, and the power system.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Aside from tangible asset losses, Irma brought significant economic damages. International freight shipping was projected to be offline for a week, and costs for rebuilding supplies were inflated due to demand in the U.S.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Swollen rivers contributed to worsening flooding in the days after the storm system left, resulting in additional evacuations. Officials resorted to using inflatable rafts to access affected areas. The national electrical infrastructure was said to be extensively damaged.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In the Dominican Republic, flooding worsened following Irma's departure, leading the number of displaced persons to increase to more than 24,000 by September 8. President Danilo Medina ordered further evacuations due to at-risk dams, while the government banned swimming in rivers and ordered boats kept in port. More than 422,000 people were left without water due to 28 aqueducts being damaged.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In Haiti, officials stated that losses were greater than they could have been since people largely did not heed early preparation and evacuation warnings. At least 5,000 homes were flooded. One man died trying to cross a flooded river; another went missing and 17 were injured. The trash- and waste-contaminated floodwaters in places like Cap-Haïtien, Ouanaminthe, and Gonaives led to fears of cholera outbreaks. Flooding continued to worsen days after the storm, as runoff from the mountains swelled rivers in low-lying farming communities. United Nations peacekeepers from Brazil were able to gain access to the flooded northwest region to provide urgent aid, but non-governmental organizations and Haitian economists warned that the estimated 30,000 victims would need longer-term assistance as well. Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant appointed a government commission to address Irma's effects, with Action Against Hunger in charge of humanitarian coordination.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In the USVI, residents and tourists alike were described as being in a state of traumatic shock. By September 7, the USS "Wasp" amphibious assault ship had arrived in the USVI to provide supplies, damage assessment, and evacuation assistance. Four additional warships, some of which had already been on their way to Texas to assist with Hurricane Harvey relief, were redirected to the region. At a September 10 news conference, Governor Kenneth Mapp described Irma as a "horrific disaster" for which "[t]here will be no restorations or solutions in days or weeks." The Federal Emergency Management Agency airlifted in goods for residents, who were subjected to a curfew. Norwegian Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean Cruise Line agreed to transport tourists to Florida, contingent upon port availability following the state's own experience with Irma.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: On Saint John, described as "perhaps the site of Irma's worst devastation on American soil," it took six days for an active-theater disaster zone to be established, leading to criticism of the U.S. government response. The National Guard was delayed in reaching Saint John due to the number of overturned boats left in the harbor. The National Guard was brought in to maintain order, while the Coast Guard brought evacuees to cruise ships bound for San Juan and Miami. There was still no electricity on St. John in the middle of October 2017.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: By September 9, more than one million Puerto Ricans were still without power, tens of thousands were without water, and several thousand were still in shelters. Hospitals were operating on generator power. The government was struggling to establish contact with the islands of Culebra and Vieques. By September 10, the main island had recovered enough to serve as a refuge for people stranded on other islands, including 1,200 tourists from Saint Martin and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Airlifts had brought more than 50 patients to Puerto Rico.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Five months after Irma, two-thirds of the hospital beds on Saint Thomas were still unavailable, due to extensive physical damage and staffing shortages.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Damage to Sint Maarten's harbour and to Princess Juliana International Airport left the Dutch part of Saint Martin unreachable, although the smaller Grand Case-Espérance Airport on the French side could be reopened by September 7 for supply aid by helicopter and airplane. The French armed forces based in Guadeloupe and French Guiana flew equipment and troops on board a CASA/IPTN CN-235 aircraft.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: The following day, the Dutch military was able to airlift dialysis patients off the island while also dropping leaflets to warn islanders about the rapidly approaching Hurricane Jose. Although the airport was closed, 435 students and faculty of the American University of the Caribbean were evacuated by the U.S. military. On September 10, Dutch King Willem-Alexander departed for the region, with intentions to visit Sint Maarten and other affected Dutch territories and commonwealth members.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: French President Emmanuel Macron followed this announcement by stating his intentions to visit the French part of the island on September 12 in order to bring aid supplies. In response to criticism of the French handling of the disaster, 1,000 troops, police, and other emergency workers were sent to Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: On both sides of Saint Martin, desperate conditions combined with food and water shortages in Irma's aftermath led to reports of violence, scavenging, and theft. In response, the French government increased its troop deployment to 2,200 and the Dutch government sent more than 600 military and police personnel.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: The day after the hurricane hit Saint Barthelemy the French armed forces based in Guadeloupe and French Guiana flew equipment and troops into the reopened Grand Case-Espérance Airport. On September 7 and 9, equipment and personnel were flown from France to Guadeloupe and Martinique.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Sporadic reports of looting and burglaries at several Miami Metro area businesses occurred with the theft of non-essential items such as sports apparel and athletic shoes during the height of the storm.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: On September 11, Florida Governor Rick Scott conducted an aerial tour to survey the damage to the Keys. The Overseas Highway remained closed while authorities assessed the integrity of the 42 bridges along the route. Residents returning to the Keys were faced with a police roadblock, to the south of Florida City. USS "Iwo Jima", USS "New York" and aircraft carrier USS "Abraham Lincoln" were sent to the Keys area to aid with the recovery.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: On September 12, some residents were allowed to return into the Keys as far as Islamorada. Although road damage blocked entry any farther than Islamorada, bridges had been inspected and found safe to Sugarloaf Key. By late on September 12, the Overseas Highway had been repaired and the bridges inspected as safe for first responders to travel to Key West. On September 16, residents were free to return to Marathon. Residents were allowed to return to Key West the following day, although the Keys remained closed to tourists and a checkpoint remained in place in Florida City.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Due mainly to the widespread loss of power, cell phone service was also reduced after battery backup power for cell phone towers ran out and backup generators ran out of fuel. In an impact report by the FCC, as of 11 AM EDT on September 12, 89 of 108 (82%) cell phone towers were non-functioning in Monroe County (Florida Keys), 154 of 212 (73%) were non-functioning in Collier County (Naples), 36 of 46 (78%) were non-functioning in Hendry County, and an additional six counties had 41-60% of cell phone towers not functioning, including Lee County (Fort Myers) and Miami-Dade County.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: NOAA released map-format aerial reconnaissance image data of damage from the storm. The imagery featured several areas of Florida: including the Florida Keys, the southwest coast of Florida from Marco Island to Punta Gorda, much of the northeast coast of Florida, and portions of the Jacksonville area. Portions of the Georgia and South Carolina coasts were also photographed. Additionally, the "Sun-Sentinel" published before and after photos of several landmarks in the Florida Keys.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: In the days after the hurricane, due to the heavy rainfall, numerous rivers had flooded, including residential areas. Public health risks, such as diarrheal infections and mosquito-borne illnesses, remain from the flooding that resulted in the aftermath of the hurricane. A large concern from flooding is contamination because people become exposed to dirty floodwaters and the potential for contaminated water to enter the local water supply is significant. One example of an illness that can enter the water supply is leptospirosis, which is rat urine carries into the floodwaters. Untreated exposure to leptospirosis can cause kidney damage, meningitis, and liver failure. Noroviruses and other infections are also a risk.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Following Irma's passage, a hand-carved wooden canoe was discovered on the banks of the Indian River and could be several hundred years old. The state has removed the canoe for examination and safe keeping.


title: Hurricane Irma

text: Due to Irma's and Hurricane Harvey's impact in Florida and Texas, U.S. employment declined in September for the first time since September 2010. The leisure and hospitality industries were especially hard hit, losing 111,000 jobs in September.