Hurricane Jose strengthened to a Category Three storm Thursday, as it followed in the path of monster Hurricane Irma, US weather forecasters said.

The National Hurricane Center said the storm, located east of the Lesser Antilles, was packing winds of 120 miles per hour (195 kilometers per hour), as it moved northwest at nearly 18 miles per hour (30 kilometers per hour).

"Some additional strengthening is possible during the next 24 to 36 hours," the NHC said.

Hurricane Irma -- at Category Five, the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson scale -- battered a string of Caribbean islands on Wednesday and appears to be on a collision course with southern Florida.

Besides hurricanes Jose and Irma there is another Atlantic hurricane, Katia -- a Category One storm -- in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico.

According to meteorologists the last time there were three active hurricanes in the Atlantic at the same time was September 2010. DM</s>After Trump's announcement, attorneys general in New York and California said they were prepared to seek legal action against his decision.

After Trump's announcement, attorneys general in New York and California said they were prepared to seek legal action against his decision.

Senate Republicans have almost doubled the size of President Donald Trump's emergency Harvey aid package, adding a first installment to help communities in Texas rebuild from the storm _ and stock reserves for looming damage from Hurricane Irma.

Senate Republicans have almost doubled the size of President Donald Trump's emergency Harvey aid package, adding a first installment to help communities in Texas rebuild from the storm _ and stock reserves for looming damage from Hurricane Irma.

Residents in parts of the Miami metro area are under mandatory orders to leave their homes as Hurricane Irma barrels toward South Florida with potentially catastrophic winds.

Residents in parts of the Miami metro area are under mandatory orders to leave their homes as Hurricane Irma barrels toward South Florida with potentially catastrophic winds.

The westward trend in forecast models and the official track of Irma have continued Saturday. This leads to a very high confidence that Irma will make landfall in south Florida and then move northward through the Florida peninsula on Sunday and into Georgia on Monday.

The westward trend in forecast models and the official track of Irma have continued Saturday. This leads to a very high confidence that Irma will make landfall in south Florida and then move northward through the Florida peninsula on Sunday and into Georgia on Monday.

IRMA UPDATE: Severe impacts across Florida and Georgia, fringe effect still expected in Carolinas

IRMA UPDATE: Severe impacts across Florida and Georgia, fringe effect still expected in Carolinas

At 11 a.m. Saturday, the National Hurricane Center says Irma is now a Category 3 hurricane with 125 mph winds.

Irma was briefly at a Category 5 strength late Friday, but winds have been decreasing Saturday morning.

The storm is forecast to restrengthen once it moves away from Cuba, and expected to remain a powerful hurricane as it approaches Florida.



The hurricane is moving about 9 mph (19.3 kph) toward the west.

Hurricane Warnings are northward along the Florida Peninsula. Much of Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast are now out of Irma's cone of uncertainty, but that track could still shift.

The National Hurricane Center says the eye of the storm is expected to hit southwest Florida and Tampa sometime Sunday, but the entire state will feel the storm’s effects.

Hurricane Center spokesman and meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said Saturday that while Miami won’t get the core of Irma it will still get life-threatening hurricane conditions.

Irma’s winds have slowed slightly while it rakes Cuba, but the massive storm is expected to strengthen again as it approaches Florida.

Forecasters expect the storm to pick strength back up as it moves away from Cuba.

The storm’s center was about 10 miles (15 kilometers) northwest of Caibarien, Cuba. That’s also about 225 miles (365 kilometers) south of Miami.

Meteorologists say damaging winds from Irma’s outer bands were already arriving in South Florida. The storm was expected to reach the Florida Keys on Sunday morning before moving up the state’s Gulf Coast.

The National Weather Service has issued a Flash Flood Watch for inland Palm Beach County from Saturday evening through Monday.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 70 miles (110 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 195 miles (315 km).

The minimum central pressure reported by a reconnaissance plane was 937 mb (27.67 inches).

In the Atlantic, Hurricane Jose is a Category 4 hurricane, about 190 miles (306 kilometers) east-southeast of The Northern Leeward Islands, moving toward the islands at 13 mph (20.92 kph) with winds reaching 150 mph.

In the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Katia made landfall late Friday north of Tecolutla, Mexico and weakened to a tropical storm. By early Saturday morning it was 135 miles (217 kilometers) south of Tampico, Mexico, moving sluggishly at only 2 mph (3.2 kph) near the Sierra Madre Mountains with maximum winds of 40 mph (64.4 kph). It was expected to weaken further throughout the day.</s>FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — They call it the Big One — a mythic, massive hurricane that would obliterate the densely populated southeast coast. And it has long been the stuff of Florida’s nightmares.

Irma, it appears, could be it. The storm has triggered near panic in a region of more than 6 million people that includes Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, clustered along a narrow ribbon of coastline that has seen nearly double-digit population growth over the past five years.

Isabella Janse Van Vuuren just arrived — she left her home in South Africa two weeks ago to start a job as a stewardess on a yacht, which she and other crew members spent time securing. As Irma approached, she was trying to decide whether to stay or go.

“I’m terrified,” she said. “I’m not used to this. I just want to go into a cave and hide, basically. This is not a nice feeling.”

But for veterans of life in the Sunshine State, hurricanes are as Floridian as oranges and Mickey Mouse. And every hurricane season brings with it the chance of cataclysm.

In 1928, a hurricane caused Lake Okeechobee to burst its banks, unleashing a 20-foot (6-meter) wall of water that killed an estimated 2,500 people. The event was a key part of Zora Neale Hurston’s classic 1937 novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”

“All gods who receive homage are cruel,” she wrote. “All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion.”

Another famed storm, the killer 1935 Labor Day hurricane that swept across the Florida Keys, is central to the plot of the 1948 movie “Key Largo,” which starred Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

Irma could be the strongest hurricane to ever hit southern Florida. Andrew hit in August 1992 and caused widespread damage south of Miami. It caused the deaths of at least 40 people in Miami-Dade County alone, according to the National Hurricane Center, with 65 deaths blamed total including those in Louisiana and the Bahamas.

“It was very scary. We just had no idea how bad it was going to be,” said Rosi Ramirez, who went through Andrew as a child in Homestead.

She’s leaving Florida for South Carolina with her three children. “I don’t want my kids to go through that traumatic experience. I hadn’t thought about Andrew in a while. But now I am seeing some flashes of what we went through. It is all coming back.”

Floridians have not been directly hit by a major hurricane since Wilma in 2005, but if they needed any reminder of what might await them, they saw the catastrophic flooding and damage caused by the storm Harvey in Houston. Jenna Wulf, a native Floridian who is six months pregnant, said seeing the damage caused by Harvey made her family more cautious; she stocked up on water Saturday and the hurricane shutters are going up on her home in suburban Plantation.

“I think it’s such devastation that you’d be silly not to go through the motions,” she said. “I’m nervous because I’m pregnant and because I have a baby already. I’m trying not to watch (the news) because I think it’s causing more panic.”

Andrew is often considered the worst storm in South Florida’s history. But in terms of fatalities, it didn’t come close to the “Great Miami Hurricane” of September, 1926, which killed 372 people when it came ashore directly over the city, carrying with it a 10-foot (3-meter) storm surge. Many died after apparently thinking the worst was over when the storm’s relatively calm eye passed over Miami, only to be caught without shelter in the second part of the hurricane, according to a National Weather Service history.

“Residents of the city, unfamiliar with hurricanes, thought the storm was over and emerged from their places of refuge out into the city streets. People even began returning to the mainland from Miami Beach. The lull lasted only about 35 minutes,” the history says.

“The intensity of the storm and the wreckage it left cannot adequately be described,” it says.

The hurricane brought a halt, at least temporarily, to a growth boom which saw Miami’s population more than double to more than 100,000 in just six years. Today’s population of Miami-Dade County is about 2.7 million.

Craig Pittman, an environmental reporter at the Tampa Bay Times and the author of the bestselling book “Oh, Florida,” said the mythic Big One is just that — a myth. Hurricanes are just a fact of life in a state that is hit by the big storms more often than any other state. And even if the Big One were to strike, he doubts that it would deter people from living in — or visiting — what many consider paradise.

“We’re the state that’s constantly trying to kill us,” he said. “We’re the state with sinkholes, shark bites, alligators and lightning. And we get hit by hurricanes. Yet people keep flooding here day after day.”

People like Austin Spitler, a former Miami Dolphins player who moved from Ohio nine years ago. He said he never considered a potential storm as a reason to leave.

“It never crossed my mind, to be honest with you,” Spitler said. “It was the lure of the sun and the sand. The beautiful weather far outweighs any of the hurricanes that come through.”

But he added: “I hope I’m not eating my words.”</s>8:15 p.m South Carolina’s governor has ordered the evacuation of seven barrier islands, including Hilton Head Island, because they could be inundated by Hurricane Irma.

Gov. Henry McMaster said Friday that 4 to 6 feet (1.2 to 1.8 meters) of storm surge is possible on the islands in the southern part of the state even though the center of Irma is forecast to move 200 miles to the west. With about 40,000 residents, Hilton Head Island is by far the largest island evacuated. It also has a number of resorts, golf courses and hotels.

South Carolina Adjutant General Robert Livingston estimates 20,000 people have already left Hilton Head Island. Edisto Beach is also being evacuated, along with Harbor, Hunting, Fripp, Daufuskie, Tullifini and Knowles islands. McMaster says a change in Irma’s track back east might require more evacuations.

8:05 p.m. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has issued a state of emergency ahead of Hurricane Irma. The remnants of the deadly hurricane are currently projected to sweep into Alabama and Georgia by Monday morning, bringing strong winds and rain.

The governor said even though it appears Alabama will escape the brunt of the storm, the state will certainly be affected by the tropical system. “We must be ready to respond, no matter what comes our way,” Ivey said.

Under the projected track released Friday, the tropical system is expected to sweep into Alabama Monday morning bringing sustained winds of up to 30 mph, with higher gusts in the eastern part of the state. Alabama Emergency Management Agency meteorologist Jim Stefkovich says the greater inland threat for severe weather is in Georgia, but emphasized that could shift.

8:05 p.m. A handwritten sign on the door of an Orlando Home Depot reads “sorry, out of plywood” – a nearly universal problem at stores across the city as residents scrambled to collect supplies, board up their houses and wait out the storm.

Victor Hernandez wandered through the lumber racks just before closing time Friday evening, trying to think up a makeshift solution to protect two big windows at the front of his house. Hernandez thinks people might be overreacting in the wake of Hurricane Harvey in Houston, which sat over that city for days, dumping rain and causing rushing floods. He doesn’t believe this storm, moving more quickly, will be so devastating. “I’m from Cuba, we’re used to hurricanes. I grew up ready for storms,” said Hernandez, who’s lived in Orlando seven years and works as a real estate agent and valet driver

. After his wood run, Hernandez had two more stops to make: Wal-Mart, for some board games, then the liquor store, for a bottle of rum.

7:10 p.m. Florida has asked 5.6 million people to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Irma, or more than one quarter of the state’s population, according to state emergency officials.

Andrew Sussman, the state’s hurricane program manager, said Friday the total includes people throughout the southern half of the state as well as those living in inland Florida in substandard housing who were also told leave due to the dangerous storm that will slam the state this weekend.

Florida is the nation’s third-largest state with nearly 21million people according to the U.S. Census.

For days Gov. Rick Scott has been urging residents to evacuate, especially those who live in coastal areas that could be flooded due to the walls of water expected from Irma’s arrival.

6:45 p.m. The National Hurricane Center is warning Floridians that even if the storm seems to moving away from the East Coast in the latest tracks, don’t get complacent.

“This is a storm that will kill you if you don’t get out of the way,” said National Hurricane Center meteorologist and spokesman Dennis Feltgen. Feltgen says the storm has a really wide eye, with hurricane-force winds that cover the entire Florida peninsula and potentially deadly storm surges on both coasts. “Everybody’s going to feel this one,” Feltgen said.

6:45 p.m. As Florida deals with a catastrophic, dangerous hurricane, it may have a financial storm to deal with.

The annual budget forecast released this week shows, despite an ongoing economic recovery, Florida is expected to bring in just enough money to meet its spending needs.

That forecast shows the state will have a surplus of just $52 million during the fiscal year that starts in July 2018. The new estimate does not take into account the potential effects that will come from Hurricane Irma.

In the past some have speculated hurricanes help the economy because of increased spending. But Amy Baker, the state economist whose office helps put together the forecast, says a look at previous hurricanes showed that the state wound up spending more as a result of the disaster.

6:15 p.m. Hurricane Irma’s predicted path continues to inch west as the massive storm, still armed with 155 mph winds, approaches Florida.

The National Hurricane Center’s latest track brings the Category 4 hurricane into southwest Florida, up the state a tad west of the center region, and further east than earlier forecasts. However, the margin of error is still large enough that the entire state may get Irma’s powerful core.

Taking into account Irma’s 100-mile-wide hurricane-force winds, University of Miami researcher Brian McNoldy says most of the state will feel Irma’s wrath.

McNoldy says the storm will be “less costly (and) less deadly” on the state’s west coast, in comparison to Florida’s east coast, where there are more people. Forecasters keep moving Irma’s projected track a bit west because its long-anticipated turn north keeps getting pushed back. McNoldy says forecasters had expected a high-pressure system to weaken further north, allowing Irma to make the turn, but it is not weakening as fast as originally forecast.</s>CBS Local — According to the National Hurricane Center Hurricane Jose has officially been upgraded to a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of over 150 miles per hour.

Currently Jose is just east of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean sea, but is poised to come dangerously close to, or hit, the islands of Antigua, Barbuda, St. Martin, and St. Barthelemy, of which received the brunt of Category 5 storm Hurricane Irma earlier this week.

Barbuda, an island of just 1,800 people, sustained damage to 95 percent of its buildings and is largely without power and cell service.

For Barbuda and the other islands in Jose’s path, the one-two punch of Irma and Jose could prove catastrophic if Jose’s path doesn’t change.

Currently, Jose is on track to venture out to sea to the east of the Bahamas, avoiding the United States entirely.

According to multiple reports, this is the first time in history there have been two hurricanes with sustained winds of over 150 miles per hour at the same time in the Atlantic.

Hurricane Katia, which is currently churning in the Gulf Of Mexico, has strengthened to a Category 2 storm, and is expected to make landfall in Mexico in the state of Veracruz.

Irma, is expected to make landfall in South Florida late Saturday night or early Sunday morning as a Category 4 storm.

Large swaths of South Florida have been given orders to evacuate, including all of the Florida Keys and many parts of Miami with a 10-plus foot storm surge and 150-plus mile per hour winds expected to wreak havoc on the state.</s>ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- There is a slight weakening trend with Hurricane Irma as the latest update pegs it as a 155-mph, Category 4 storm.

But "weakening" does not mean not powerful nor not extremely dangerous: a 155-mph wind is just that, bringing the threat of catastrophic damage.

Irma is about 55 miles northwest of Great Inagua Island and about 495 miles east-southeast of Miami as of the 5 a.m., Sept. 8, update from the National Hurricane Center.

Related: What you need to know Friday about Hurricane Irma

Hurricane watches and warnings are in effect for parts of Florida's west coast and the southern part of the state in advance of Irma, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The watch is in effect from Anna Maria Island south to Bonita Beach, including Manatee, Sarasota and Highlands counties. Tropical storm force winds are anticipated 48 hours after the watch is declared.

The warnings include the Keys and an area of the peninsula including metro Miami and Lake Okeechobee. Storm surge warnings cover both coasts along the state's tip.

Irma’s wind speeds are forecast to decrease as it gets closer to the Florida Coast.

Here's a breakdown of the Saffir-Simpson scale, according to the National Hurricane Center:

Category 1 - 74-95 mph sustained winds: Very dangerous winds will produce some damage

Category 5 - 157 mph or higher sustained winds: Catastrophic damage will occur ("a high percentage of framed homes will be destroyed)

Thousands of people have evacuated after the NHC issued hurricane warnings for South Florida. More than a half-million people have been ordered to leave the region ahead of Hurricane Irma.

Gov. Rick Scott ordered all public schools, colleges and universities to close Friday through Monday.

The governor told residents not to become complacent because the storm could have "major and life-threatening impacts from coast to coast."

Editor's Note: Information from the Associated Press is used in this story.

►Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the 10 News app now.

Have a news tip? Email desk@wtsp.com, or visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.</s>Hurricane Irma has weakened slightly with maximum winds at 165 mph. Irma remains a category five hurricane and could impact South Florida by early Sunday.

This storm is not forecast to enter the Gulf of Mexico. The official track takes Irma along the east coast of Florida Sunday into Monday.

The much anticipated turn to the north is expected on Saturday. Most models agree with this with the exception of the Euro.

The European model takes Irma right up the peninsula of Florida much like Hurricane Donna in 1960. This is the reason the National Hurricane Center shifted the track slightly west this afternoon.

Irma will not impact Alabama with sunshine expected to continue through the weekend.</s>Although it's still up exactly how Hurricane Irma will impact NE Florida, it doesn't take a direct hit for powerful storms like this one to sink boats.</s>SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Fearsome Hurricane Irma left at least 10 dead and thousands homeless amid a swathe of smashed buildings and uprooted trees, cutting a path of devastation across the northern Caribbean on Thursday on a track that could lead to a catastrophic strike on Florida.

The most potent Atlantic Ocean hurricane ever, Irma weakened only slightly Thursday morning and remained a powerful Category 5 storm with winds of 180 mph (285 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

The storm was increasingly likely to rip into heavily populated South Florida early Sunday, prompting the governor to declare an emergency and officials to impose mandatory evacuation orders for parts of the Miami metro area and the Florida Keys. Forecasters said it could punish the entire Atlantic coast of Florida and rage on into Georgia and South Carolina.

“This could easily be the most costly storm in U.S. history, which is saying a lot considering what just happened two weeks ago,” said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami, alluding to the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey.

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told France Info radio that eight had died and 23 injured in the country’s Caribbean island territories, and he said the toll on Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthelemy could be higher because rescue teams have yet to finish their inspection of the islands.

“The reconnaissance will really start at daybreak,” Collomb said.

At a news conference, Collomb also said 100,000 food rations have been sent to the islands, the equivalent of four days of supplies.

“It’s a tragedy, we’ll need to rebuild both islands,” he said. “Most of the schools have been destroyed.”

French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said he will go to the islands has soon as weather conditions permit.

In the United Kingdom, the government said Irma inflicted “severe and in places critical” damage to the British overseas territory of Anguilla. Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan said the Caribbean island took the full force of the hurricane. He told lawmakers on Thursday that the British Virgin islands have also suffered “severe damage.”

Irma blacked out much of Puerto Rico, raking the U.S. territory with heavy wind and rain while staying just out to sea, and it headed early Thursday toward the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

To the east, authorities struggled to get aid to small Caribbean islands devastated by the storm’s record 185 mph (298 kph) winds. Communications were difficult with areas hit by Irma, and information on damage trickled out.

Nearly every building on Barbuda was damaged when the hurricane’s core crossed almost directly over the island early Wednesday and about 60 percent of its roughly 1,400 residents were left homeless, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne told The Associated Press.

“It is just really a horrendous situation,” Browne said after returning to Antigua from a plane trip to the neighboring island.

He said roads and telecommunications systems were wrecked and recovery would take months, if not years. A 2-year-old child was killed as a family tried to escape a damaged home during the storm, Browne told the AP.

One death also was reported in the nearby island of Anguilla, where officials reported extensive damage to the airport, hospitals, shelters and school and said 90 percent of roads are impassible, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency.

The agency also reported “major damage” to houses and commercial buildings in the British Virgin Islands.

On St. Thomas in the nearby U.S. Virgin Islands, Laura Strickling spent 12 hours hunkered down with her husband and 1-year-old daughter in a boarded-up basement apartment with no power as the storm raged outside. They emerged to find the lush island in tatters. Many of their neighbors’ homes were damaged and once-dense vegetation was largely gone.

“There are no leaves. It is crazy. One of the things we loved about St. Thomas is that it was so green. And it’s gone,” Strickling said. “It will take years for this community to get back on its feet.”

Significant damage was also reported on St. Martin, an island split between French and Dutch control. Photos and video circulating on social media showed major damage to the airport in Philipsburg and the coastal village of Marigot heavily flooded. France sent emergency food and water there and to the French island of St. Bart’s, where Irma ripped off roofs and knocked out electricity.</s>Hurricane Jose is now an extremely dangerous category 4, packing winds of up to 240 kilometres-per-hour.

That’s according to the latest update this morning from the National Hurricane Centre in Miami.

Jose is now 670 kilometers east of the Leeward Islands. It’s forecast to move west-northwest into the Atlantic Ocean in the coming days.

A Hurricane Watch is in effect for Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla, Saint Martin and St. Barthelemy – many of the islands affected by Hurricane Irma.

According to the CNN, this is the first time on record that the Atlantic has had two hurricanes with 240 kilometre-per-hour winds or higher, at the same time.

Hurricane Irma is currently to the east of Cuba moving west-northwest. It has maximum sustained winds of 240 kilometres-per-hour.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Katia continues to strengthen over in the Gulf of Mexico.

It remains a Category Two Hurricane, with winds of up to 155 kilometers per hour.

Katia is expected to make landfall between Cabo Roja and Laguna Verde, Mexico, early Saturday.
Hurricane Jose intensifies into an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 hurricane as it nears the northern Leeward Islands, according to the National Hurricane Center.