News article:

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 East Oakland Park Boulevard is completely blocked by a downed street light pole as Hurricane Irma hits the southern part of the state on September 10, 2017 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)

 MIAMI — Hurricane Irma marched relentlessly up Florida's Gulf coast Sunday after slamming through the Florida Keys, as the meteorological behemoth's slashing rain and roaring winds rolled toward Georgia and beyond.

 The storm made landfall on the Florida Keys and later near Naples, but Florida's eastern coast was far from spared Sunday from the almost 400-mile-wide storm. In Miami, high winds snapped construction cranes and water swept down streets like rivers. In Palm Bay, 175 miles to the north, a tornado destroyed six mobile homes. Water rose by 4 feet in 30 minutes in some places.

 In Miami-Dade County, about 850,000 homes were without power, prompting Mayor Carlos Gimenez to impose a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew. Looters proved to be a problem too, with thousands of businesses and homes empty due to evacuations.

 "We're going to be monitoring any types of crimes," Miami Police Commander Freddie Cruz told USA TODAY.

 Millions of Floridians evacuated ahead of the historic storm, and more than 3.4 million power customers — about 7 million people — were without electricity Sunday.

 "We're going to get through this," Gov. Rick Scott told workers in the state Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee. "We've got a lot of work to do," he added.

 Scott visited Pensacola on Sunday to check on evacuees and get updates from officials. Volunteers in the shelters will be a growing need, he said.

 "People are going to be in our shelters for awhile," Scott said.

 Despite a 10-mile east shift Sunday afternoon Hurricane Irma still was poised to travel north and strike Tampa as a weaker storm before daybreak Monday, the National Hurricane Center said.

 By 11 p.m. ET, Irma's winds had slowed somewhat to maximum sustained speed of 100 mph, but continued to barrel north at 14 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. At 11 p.m. ET, the storm was 50 miles southeast of Tampa.

 Irma was forecast to continue traveling toward the Big Bend area in the Panhandle and strike Tampa as a Category 1 or 2 early Monday. It will be a tropical storm or Category 1 when it reaches the Tallahassee area.

 CLOSE Hurricane Irma may have weakened, but it's still a big storm with clouds stretching from West Virginia to the Florida Keys. And it's not the only hurricane worth following right now. USA TODAY

 The storm sent 120 mph winds to the Naples area after making landfall on Marco Island Sunday afternoon.

 The east shift didn't change conditions for Central Florida and the east coast, Hurricane Center acting Director Ed Rappaport said. Those areas expected at least tropical storm conditions, stronger gusts and tornadoes.

 Even as Irma wound down, the storm was creating complications in the Naples area. Irma blew the roof off of the fire station at Naples Municipal Airport, where the National Hurricane Center logged a wind gust of 142 mph, according to a 6 p.m. ET update Sunday. Emergency crews in Naples were working with the help of backup generators good for up to four days and able to be refueled. In Collier County, residents were asked to boil water before drinking or cooking until further notice.

 In Venice, north of Naples, Irma was preventing utility workers from repairing a significant water main break, forcing the city's Utilities Department to shut down the water system. The development meant residents would have no water for the time being for drinking or flushing toilets.

 The storm claimed at least three lives in Florida. A Hardee County sheriff's deputy and a prison employee died in a vehicle crash related to Irma on Sunday, officials said. Deputy Julie Bridges was on her way to pick up shelter supplies when the vehicle she was driving collided with another vehicle carrying Sgt. Joseph Ossman, who was reporting for work at the Hardee Correctional Institution.

 One person died in a single vehicle accident off of a highway in Orange County, Fla., Sunday evening, county Fire Chief Otto Drozd said. "This underscores just how dangerous the roads are because it was just a single vehicle," Drozd told reporters.

 Hardee County Deputy Julie Bridges and DOC Sergeant Joseph Ossman killed in head-on crash during Hurricane Irma https://t.co/B6D4zmopXbpic.twitter.com/Qo28IYJfVI — Heavy.com (@HeavySan) September 10, 2017

 President Trump approved a disaster declaration on Sunday for Florida, the White House announced Sunday. The declaration makes federal aid available for several counties affected by the storm, including Miami-Dade.

 The president told reporters outside of the White House on Sunday that he will visit Florida "very soon." He did not specify where in Florida or when.

 Irma was expected to roll Monday into Georgia, where Gov. Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency for all 159 counties. Atlanta claimed the dubious distinction of receiving its first tropical storm warning in city history.

 The states of Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana and Illinois all could face severe effects from the storm before it quiets by week's end, the National Weather Service said.

 ***EVERYONE IN THE FLORIDA KEYS***

 ***IT IS TIME TO HUNKER DOWN***

 ***THE WORST WINDS ARE YET TO COME***#Irma#FLkeys#flwxpic.twitter.com/lmHTcRv68l — NWS Key West (@NWSKeyWest) September 10, 2017

 Irma slammed into Cudjoe Key on Sunday morning as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 130 mph. That marked the first time two consecutive Category 4 hurricanes have hit the United States, following Hurricane Harvey in Texas last month. Irma also is Florida's first major hurricane since Wilma in 2005.

 Larry Kahn, editor of the Keynoter, said power was out and there was no running water at Marathon High School, a "refuge of last resort" on the middle Keys.

 “Everything is underwater," Kahn said. "I mean everything."

 Sunday night, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay instituted an indefinite dusk-to-dawn curfew to reduce travel danger and the risk of looting.

 "Anyone out after the designated times is subject to arrest," he said in a statement.

 President Trump spoke to the governors of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, and has been speaking regularly with Florida's Scott and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the White House said. Trump said he was encouraged by the response to the disaster this far.

 "I think it's been going really well," Trump said. "FEMA has been incredible. We're working very well with the governor and the other governors in the surrounding states."

 Watch as storm-surge floods engulf a Miami neighborhood. #HurricaneIrmapic.twitter.com/04jj00WodU — USA TODAY (@USATODAY) September 10, 2017

 In one of the biggest U.S. evacuations ever, about 6.3 million people in Florida — more than one-quarter of the state’s population — were told to clear out from threatened areas. Another 540,000 were directed to move away from the Georgia coast.

 More than 10,000 flights were canceled, airports were closed, ocean cruises diverted and Disney resorts shut down as a result of the storm. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport — the world's busiest airport — could see disruptions as Irma moves north.

 CLOSE One man in Fort Myers, Florida says he's going to keep to his 'gambling ways' when it comes to Hurricane Irma. He says he's 'rolling the dice' and staying home. USA TODAY

 Irma's track marked the first time the Tampa-St. Petersburg region was the target of a major hurricane in almost a century.

 Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn warned residents to prepare for the worst.

 "Be prepared for a storm that we've never seen before," Buckhorn tweeted. "Our day has come."

 Large waves produced by Hurricane Irma crash into the end of Anglins Fishing Pier in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on September 10, 2017. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)

 Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale, and its 2 million residents remained under a curfew until 10 a.m. ET Monday. The town of Davie reported that a wastewater pump station lost power between Saturday night and Sunday morning and was expected to overflow, raising fears that sewage could contaminate standing water in neighborhoods, officials said.

 More: Utility: Up to 9 million people could lose power during Hurricane Irma

 More: Florida volunteers step in to prepare for Hurricane Irma

 More: Waiting for Jose: Caribbean braces for second potent storm

 Emergency management officials were concerned that east coast residents who evacuated might try to return home after Irma's track veered toward the Gulf coast.

 "Don't make a dumb decision," cautioned Brevard County Communications DIrector Don Walker. "Stay put until the all-clear is issued by emergency officials."

 That will likely would be Monday afternoon, at the earliest, he said.

 Florida Power and Light, which serves nearly 10 million people in southern Florida, expects about 6 million people will be affected by the storm.

 A news conference to update the status of outages across the state was interrupted — by a power outage.

 The storm's death toll has already reached into the double digitssince roaring out of the open Atlantic and chewing through a string of Caribbean islands.

 CLOSE . Land interaction has already weakened Irma's core, and the NHC 5pm advisory now has it as a category 2 storm with 110mph sustained winds.

 Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Elaine Duke said the federal government is prepared to respond to Hurricane Irma and the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey simultaneously.

 "I don’t have any doubt … that as a federal government we can do this and will do this," she said.

 Rice and Bacon reported from McLean, Va. Contributing: Alan Gomez, Trevor Hughes, Bart Jansen and Melanie Eversley, USA TODAY; Joseph Cranney and Arek Sarkissian, Naples Daily News; Isadora Rangel and Nicole Rodriguez, TCPalm; Tyler Vazquez, Florida Today; Kevin Robinson, Pensacola News Journal; The Associated Press

 More: Hurricane Irma: Where is it now, where is it headed?

 More: Florida flight cancellations now at 5,000, extend through Monday

 More: Questions and answers on Hurricane Irma’s impact on Florida

 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2xWUjsV ||||| Stranded motorists try to get back in their car after a breakdown as Hurricane Irma bears down on the Florida Keys, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017, in Hialeah, Fla. Wind gusts of 82 mph were reported in Miami.... (Associated Press)

 Stranded motorists try to get back in their car after a breakdown as Hurricane Irma bears down on the Florida Keys, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017, in Hialeah, Fla. Wind gusts of 82 mph were reported in Miami. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz) (Associated Press)

 ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on Hurricane Irma (all times local):

 5:15 p.m.

 President Donald Trump says the U.S. may have gotten a "little bit lucky" after Hurricane Irma veered from its original course and headed west along Florida's coast.

 He says Irma may not have been quite as destructive as a result, but that things will play out over the next several hours.

 Trump addressed reporters Sunday after returning to the White House from Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland where he spent the weekend monitoring the storm.

 Trump says Irma will cost "a lot of money" but he isn't thinking about that right now.

 He says "right now, we're worried about lives, not cost."

 Trump says he'll be having additional meetings about coordination for the storm response.

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 5:15 p.m.

 Hurricane Irma has weakened to a Category 2 storm, technically losing its major hurricane status, after making landfall in southwestern Florida. It is over land but hugging the coast as it moves north.

 The National Hurricane Center said Irma's winds were at 110 mph (177 kph), just below major hurricane status, as the center of the still dangerous and wide storm moved farther inland. It was 5 miles (8 kilometers) north of Naples late Sunday afternoon. It came ashore on Marco Island at 3:35 p.m.

 The hurricane center says "although weakening is forecast, Irma is expected to remain a hurricane at least through Monday morning."

 The hurricane center says the eye of Irma should hug Florida's west coast through Monday morning and then push more inland over northern Florida and southwestern Georgia on Monday afternoon. The forecast puts the storm generally over the populated Tampa-St. Petersburg region a couple hours after midnight into Monday morning.

 Jeff Masters is meteorology director of the private Weather Underground. He says the fact that the storm approached the Tampa region from over land and from the south could slightly reduce the expected storm surge, although he says it will still be dangerous.

 Irma is producing deluges of 2 to 4 inches (5 to 13 centimeters) of rain an hour, which can cause flash flooding.

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 5:15 p.m.

 The storm surge near Cudjoe Key may be flooding the nearby Florida Key Deer Refuge, home to fewer than 1,000 of the endangered Key deer.

 The unique subspecies of white-tailed deer about 3 feet (1 meter) tall at the shoulder, the size of a large dog, but wildlife officials were not immediately concerned that the herd had been lost to floodwaters.

 Dan Clark is refuge manager for the Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges Complex. He says the deer are "excellent swimmers."

 Clark evacuated his staff Wednesday, and he spoke with The Associated Press by phone from Pinellas County.

 He says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff planned to return as soon as weather permitted to begin assessing how the deer and other endangered species fared throughout the narrow, low-lying island chain.

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 5:15 p.m.

 Police in Florida have arrested nine people who were caught on TV cameras looting sneakers and other goods from a sporting goods store and a pawn shop during Hurricane Irma.

 Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Rick Maglione said the group was arrested Sunday as the storm roared across South Florida. Maglione called the idea of stealing sneakers during a hurricane "a fairly bad life choice."

 Local TV images showed the alleged looters running in and out of a store through a broken window carrying boxes of sneakers.

 It wasn't immediately clear what charges those arrested would face. Their identities also were not immediately released.

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 5:15 p.m.

 South Florida Water Management District chief engineer John Mitnik says it will probably be 7 p.m. Sunday before the storm surge in Miami completely subsides. He said the district is prepared for the storm surge expected on the Gulf coast and will have crews out repairing canals and drainage equipment as soon as it is safe.

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 5:15 p.m.

 Wildlife officials say Florida residents and visitors should stay away from sea turtle nests and refrain from any attempts to save them from Hurricane Irma.

 The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says in a news release that the public must not interfere with any sea turtle eggs, even if they think they're helping.

 Officials say sea turtles have a nesting strategy that accommodates natural storm events, with each female depositing several nests throughout the season. No storm season is a total loss for Florida's sea turtles. Even in 2004, when Florida sustained direct hits from several hurricanes, officials say 42 percent of state's loggerhead nests hatched, well within the normal range.

 Anyone who sees exposed turtle eggs or nests should contact wildlife officials.

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 5:15 p.m.

 Officials are warning boaters to stay away from the Florida Keys in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

 Monroe County spokeswoman Cammy Clark said in an email Sunday evening that nearshore waters are filled with navigation hazards like debris, sunken boats, loose boats, buoys and markers.

 Residents with boats already in the Keys should avoid driving them in the nearshore waters.

 Hurricane Irma made landfall Sunday morning in Cudjoe Key.

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 4:30 p.m.

 The Marco Island police department is warning people who didn't evacuate to get to higher floors in their buildings.

 The department issued the warning in a tweet on Sunday just as Hurricane Irma made landfall on the island.

 Forecasts have called for life-threatening storm surge of up to 15 feet (4.5 meters) along the coast.

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 4:30 p.m.

 The University of Miami will not reopen either its main campus in Coral Gables or its Marine campus before Sept. 18 while it assesses the damage caused by Hurricane Irma.

 The school says it is "proactively planning the recovery process." Numerous out-of-state students went back home last week to wait out the storm and it remains unclear when they will even be able to travel back to South Florida.

 Miami's annual football rivalry game with Florida State has already been pushed back to Oct. 7. It had been scheduled for Sept. 16 in Tallahassee, the state capital that is also in Irma's projected path.

 ____

 4:30 p.m.

 Electric car maker Tesla says it has temporarily increased the battery capacity of some of its cars to help drivers escaping Hurricane Irma.

 The electric car maker said the battery boost was applied to Model S and X cars in the Southeast. Some drivers only buy 60 or 70 kilowatt hours of battery capacity, but a software change will give them access to 75 kilowatt hours of battery life until Saturday. Depending on the model, that could let drivers travel about 40 more miles before they would need to recharge their cars.

 Tesla said it made the change after a customer asked the company for help evacuating. The company said it's possible it will make similar changes in response to similar events in the future.

 ___

 3:45 p.m.

 Hurricane Irma has made landfall on Marco Island, Florida, as a Category 3 hurricane.

 The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Irma's powerful eye roared ashore at Marco Island just south of Naples with 115-mph (185-kph) winds, for a second U.S. landfall at 3:35 p.m. Sunday.

 Category 3 storms have winds from 111 to 129 mph, but 130-mph (21-kph) wind gust was recently reported by the Marco Island Police Department.

 Irma's second U.S. landfall was tied for the 21st strongest landfall in the U.S. based on central pressure. Irma's first U.S. landfall in the Florida Keys was tied for 7th.

 ___

 3:30 p.m.

 More than 2.1 million customers have lost power in Florida with Hurricane Irma striking the state.

 Florida Power & Light reported the numbers Sunday afternoon. The utility, which services much of south Florida, says more than 845,000 of those customers are in Miami-Dade County.

 Duke Energy, the dominant utility in the northern half of Florida, has about 13,000 outages with the outer bands of Irma sweeping across the region.

 The power companies say they have extra crews on hand to try to restore power — when it becomes safe to do so.

 FPL spokesman Rob Gould says an estimated 3.4 million homes and businesses will lose power once the worst of Irma reaches the Florida mainland.

 ___

 3:30 p.m.

 Hurricane Irma is affecting the House of Representative's work schedule in Washington.

 A notice from the House majority leader's office says the House now doesn't plan to take any votes Monday because of "the large number of absences" as a result of the storm.

 The first votes of the week are expected Tuesday evening.

 The House leadership will keep tabs on the situation and announce updates as necessary.

 ___

 3:15 p.m.

 The eye of Hurricane Irma is nearing Naples, Florida, and continues to cause destruction over a wide swath of South Florida.

 The National Hurricane Center said Irma had winds of 120 mph (195 kilometers) and was centered 20 miles (30 kilometers) south of Naples on Sunday afternoon. It was moving north at 12 mph (19 kilometers per hour). At that rate, the center of the storm should come ashore sometime between 4 and 5 p.m.

 ___

 3:30 p.m.

 Hurricane Irma has pushed water out of a bay in Tampa, but forecasters are telling people not to venture out there, because it's going to return with a potentially deadly vengeance.

 On Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa, approximately 100 people were walking Sunday afternoon on what was Old Tampa Bay — a body of water near downtown. Hurricane Irma's winds and low tide have pushed the water unusually far from its normal position. Some people are venturing as far as 200 yards (180 meters) out to get to the water's new edge. The water is normally about 4 to 5 feet (1 to 1.5 meters) deep and reaches a seawall.

 The U.S. Hurricane Center has sent out an urgent alert warning of a "life-threatening storm surge inundation of 10 to 15 feet (3 to 5 meters) above ground level" and telling people to "MOVE AWAY FROM THE WATER!"

 The waters retracted because the leading wind bands of Irma whipped the coastal water more out to sea. But once the eye passes and the wind reverses, the water will rush back in.

 ___

 3:30 p.m. Hurricane Irma is affecting the House of Representative's work schedule in Washington.

 A notice from the House majority leader's office says the House now doesn't plan to take any votes Monday because of "the large number of absences" as a result of the storm.

 The first votes of the week are expected Tuesday evening.

 The House leadership will keep tabs on the situaton and announce updates as necessary.

 ___

 3:15 p.m.

 Miami City Manager Daniel Alfonso says a second tower crane has collapsed into a building under construction in the city's downtown area. Alfonso told The Associated Press that the crane collapsed in a large development with multiple towers being built by Grand Paraiso.

 Another crane collapsed earlier Sunday onto a high-rise building that's under construction in a bayfront area filled with hotels and high-rise condo and office buildings, near AmericanAirlines Arena. Officials said no one was injured as the result of either crane's collapse.

 High winds are impeding Miami authorities' ability to reach the cranes, and authorities are urging people to avoid the areas.

 Alfonso says the approximately two-dozen other cranes in the city are still upright and built to withstand significant wind gusts.

 The tower cranes working on construction sites throughout the city were a concern ahead of Irma. Moving the massive equipment, weighing up to 30,000 pounds (13,600 kilograms), is a slow process that would have taken about two weeks, according to city officials.

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 2 p.m.

 The National Hurricane Center says a slightly weakened but still powerful Irma will slam the Naples and Marco Island with its strongest winds in a couple of hours.

 Irma's winds dropped to 120 mph (195 kilometers per hour), down from 130 mph, and forecasters say it should weaken a bit more before landfall. But it still expected to a strong major hurricane as it rakes Florida from its western edges across to the east.

 The storm is 35 miles (55 kilometers) south of Naples and has picked up speed moving north at 12 mph (19 kilometers per hour).

 The now Category 3 hurricane will keep on battering all of South Florida with high wind and surge, forecasters say. The hurricane center in western Miami, across the state from the eye of the mammoth storm, recorded an 81 mph (130 kilometers per hour) wind gust.

 "This is a life-threatening situation," the hurricane center posted.

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 2 p.m.

 An apparent tornado spun off by Hurricane Irma has destroyed six mobile homes in Florida.

 Palm Bay Police Department Lt. Mike Bandish said no one was injured in Sunday's tornado, but that a 93-year-old man refused to leave his damaged home. He told Florida Today that officers tried to convince him to leave, but he wouldn't.

 Palm Bay is on Florida's central Atlantic Coast near the Kennedy Space Center. The eye of Irma was hundreds of miles away when the tornado struck.

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 2 p.m.

 Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Elaine Duke says she doesn't have any doubt that the federal government can respond to Hurricane Irma and the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey simultaneously.

 Duke spoke Sunday afternoon at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters. Talking about efforts to respond to Irma in Florida and the aftermath of Harvey in Texas she says, "I know we're ready and ... I don't have any doubt ... that as a federal government we can do this and will do this."

 Duke says she and FEMA chief Brock Long spoke earlier Sunday with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence and that they are "absolutely pleased with the response" and that they "understand that we're just getting started in many ways."

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 2 p.m.

 Some exterior paneling of AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami, home of the NBA's Heat, has been damaged by wind. The arena is near the downtown Miami location where a crane snapped as Irma pounded away Sunday. But a team official told The Associated Press that an initial investigation showed no structural damage. They'll investigate further once conditions make it safe for workers to be outside. The Heat do not play in the arena until their preseason opener on Oct. 1.

 At Raymond James Stadium in Tampa — where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play football — local, regional and statewide authorities are using the parking lots and surroundings as a staging area for high-water vehicles and equipment. On Saturday afternoon, several U.S. Marine amphibious vehicles were parked side by side, giant tanks that are ready to plunge into floodwater if needed.

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 2 p.m.

 Florida Gov. Rick Scott says members of his family who evacuated from Naples ahead of Hurricane Irma are leaving again now that it appears the killer storm will descend on the state capital.

 Scott's wife, First Lady Ann Scott, as well as his daughter, his son-in-law and grandchildren left southwest Florida and came to the state capital. Scott owns a waterfront mansion in an area that is in the path of the hurricane.

 But Scott said Sunday that his daughter and grandchildren will be leaving Tallahassee to go to Washington, D.C. His daughter just gave birth to twins. Scott said it would be "tough for them if we lose power."

 The governor said he doesn't know what storm preparations have taken place at the governor's mansion, located a few blocks north of the Capitol. He said he "hasn't really been there" because he has been in other parts of the state or at the state emergency operations center.

 ___

 2 p.m.

 Major General Michael Calhoun, the head of Florida's National Guard, says that more than 10,000 National Guard members from other states are going to be coming into the state.

 Florida Gov. Rick Scott has already called up 7,000 members of the Florida National Guard to help with recovery efforts from Hurricane Irma. Those members have been dispatched to shelters around the state and will be involved in handing out supplies in storm-ravaged areas once Irma has passed through.

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 2 p.m.

 Georgia's governor has declared an emergency for the entire state as Hurricane Irma's approach triggers widespread severe-weather threats, including the first-ever tropical storm warning for Atlanta.

 Gov. Nathan Deal's new emergency declaration came Sunday as Irma churned near Florida. The National Hurricane Center predicted the storm's center to cross Monday into southwest Georgia, where a hurricane warning was issued for communities including Albany and Valdosta.

 Portions of western Alabama and coastal South Carolina were also under tropical-storm warnings.

 The National Weather Service confirmed it had never before issued a tropical-storm warning for Atlanta, where wind gusts could reach 55 mph (88 kph). Meanwhile Savannah and the rest of coastal Georgia were under evacuation orders for the second time since Hurricane Matthew brushed the region last October.

 ____

 2 p.m.

 More than 500 emergency responders are sleeping on cots in the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, waiting to dispatch to areas devastated by Hurricane Irma.

 The convention center had planned to host an elevator-industry gathering this weekend. Instead, more than 1,000 emergency vehicles are lined up in its halls: boats, ambulances, fork lifts, buses, 18-wheelers, fire trucks, and 62 helicopters.

 Rescue teams from Florida, Colorado, New York, California and Arizona were checking their gear and resting up so that they would be prepared to hit the road as soon as the storm clears. Some of those emergency workers never even made it home from responding to Hurricane Harvey before turning around and deploying to Florida.

 Sean Gallagher is with the Florida Forest Service, which is coordinating the staging operation. He says the convention center's loading dock doors will close as soon as the winds in Orlando rise to hurricane levels to protect the vehicles and responders inside and won't open again until the winds die down.

 Then, rapid response teams will rush into the most devastated areas to do recognizance and triage where the rescue operations are most needed.

 Until then, they are crammed in the convention center's side rooms and cots. The convention center has pallets of 13,000 ready-to-eat meals.

 Aaron Janssen is a helicopter mechanic with a medical aviation company. He's sleeping in a tent next to his helicopter, with his wife and 9-year-old Chihuahua named Marley. He didn't want to leave them behind at their Orlando home while he worked.

 Marley spent the day chasing a pigeon around the hangar.

 "She's loving it," he said. "She hadn't figured out yet that she's never going to catch that pigeon."

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 2 p.m.

 Miami Beach officials say emergency services have been suspended until winds drop below 40 mph (64 kph), and no one will be allowed into the city until roads have been cleared. The city would continue a mandatory 8 p.m. curfew for the next two nights.

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 2 p.m.

 Actor Robert De Niro says a resort development company he is involved with on Barbuda will work with local officials to help with reconstruction on the island devastated by Hurricane Irma.

 De Niro says in a statement that he was "beyond saddened to learn of the devastation" in Barbuda.

 The actor is a principal in the Paradise Found Nobu Resort planned for Barbuda. Construction has not yet started on the project.

 He said the company will work with local officials to "to successfully rebuild what nature has taken away from us."

 Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne says 90 percent of the structures and vehicles on the small island were destroyed in the storm. A 2-year-old boy was killed. About 1,400 people live on the island and most have now been evacuated to Antigua.

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 2 p.m.

 The State Department says it and the Defense Department are resuming their evacuation of U.S. citizens from Sint Maarten via a military flight to Puerto Rico.

 State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert says the department is communicating with Americans there through social media, radio, and by phone.

 The department also is coordinating with AirBnB to identify and communicate with U.S. citizens not located at hotels who may have rented residences on the island.

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 2 p.m.

 Vice President Mike Pence says Hurricane Irma is a "storm of historic, epic proportions."

 Pence spoke Sunday afternoon while visiting the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington. He says that President Donald Trump has been monitoring the storm "24/7."

 Pence says "the people of Florida need to know that our hearts and our prayers and all of our efforts are with them and will be with them until this storm passes."

 Pence says Irma "continues to be a very dangerous storm" and he urged people to "heed the warnings of local officials" to either shelter in place or evacuate, depending on where they are.

 He says Irma is a "very dangerous storm" and a "life-threatening storm."

 Pence says "it's enormously important that every American in the path of this storm take the warnings of state and local officials to heart."

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 1:30 p.m.

 Florida Power & Light says it will be weeks, not days, before electricity is fully restored because of the damage being done by Hurricane Irma.

 Spokesman Rob Gould said Sunday that an estimated 3.4 million homes and businesses will lose power once the worst of Irma reaches the Florida mainland. He expects thousands of miles (kilometers) of poles and lines will need to be replaced, particularly on the Gulf coast. As of Sunday afternoon, about 1.5 million customers were without power.

 He said 17,000 restoration workers from as far away as California and Massachusetts are already stationed around the state, but it will take time to rebuild the system.

 The utility covers much of the state, including most cities on the Atlantic coast and the Gulf coast south of Tampa. It does not cover Tampa and St. Petersburg, two major cities in Irma's forecast path.

 ____

 1:30 p.m.

 At least 25 people in one Florida county have been arrested for violating a curfew imposed as Hurricane Irma approached the state.

 Palm Beach County authorities say the arrests were made after a 3 p.m. Saturday curfew was imposed. The misdemeanor charge can carry a fine of up to $500 and potentially 60 days in jail.

 Officials announced the curfew as a safety measure and to prevent looting and other crimes. They say some of those arrested could face other charges, such as drug possession or drunken driving.

 The curfew will be lifted after a storm damage assessment is done.

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 1:30 p.m.

 A meteorologist calculates that Hurricane Irma will dump about 10 trillion gallons (38 trillion liters) of rain on Florida over a day-and-a-half time period. That's about 500,000 gallons (1.9 trillion liters) for every Florida resident.

 Private meteorologist Ryan Maue of WeatherBell Analytics based his calculations on weather service forecasts. He also calculates it will dump 6 trillion gallons (23 trillion liters) on Georgia.

 By comparison, Hurricane Harvey, which stalled over the Texas coast, dumped about 20 trillion gallons (76 trillion liters) on Texas and 7 trillion gallons (26 trillion liters) of rain on Louisiana in about five days. One place around Houston got more than 50 inches (130 centimeters) of rain. Irma is expected to crawl steadily through the Sunshine State.

 The National Hurricane Center projects 15 to 20 inches (38 to 50 centimeters) of rain with spots up to 25 inches (64 centimeters) for the Florida Keys. Western Florida is forecast to get 10 to 15 inches of rain (25 to 38 centimeters), with as much as 20 inches (50 centimeters) in spots. The rest of Florida and southeastern Georgia is projected to get 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 centimeters) of rain, with isolated outbursts up to 16 inches (40 centimeters).

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 1:30 p.m.

 Emergency workers in inflatable boats are navigating flooded streets along Havana's coast, where thousands of people left their homes for safer ground before Hurricane Irma hit Cuba.

 Seawater has penetrated as much as 1,600 feet (500 meters) inland in parts of the city. Trees are toppled, roofs have been torn off, cement water tanks have fallen from roofs to the ground and electrical lines are down.

 Elena Villar is a Havana resident whose home of 30 years filled with more than 6 feet (2 meters) of water.

 She was on the edge of tears Sunday as she said: "I have lost everything."

 Villar and her mother spent the night huddling in the lobby of a higher building nearby as the storm raked the city.

 In her words: "I have never seen a disaster like this."

 ___

 1:30 p.m.

 Thanks to Hurricane Irma, Savannah, Georgia, has been evacuated for the second time in less than a year. Atlanta, meanwhile, is under a tropical-storm warning for the first time ever.

 Nearly all of Georgia was under some type of severe-weather warning Sunday as Irma churned near Florida. The National Hurricane Center predicted the storm's center to cross Monday into southwest Georgia, where a hurricane warning was issued for communities including Albany and Valdosta.

 Portions of western Alabama and coastal South Carolina were also under tropical-storm warnings.

 The National Weather Service confirmed it had never before issued a tropical-storm warning for Atlanta, where wind gusts could reach 55 mph (88 kph). That's nothing new to Savannah and the rest of coastal Georgia, which evacuated last October for Hurricane Matthew.

 ___

 1:10 p.m.

 The White House says President Donald Trump has received a "comprehensive update" on Hurricane Irma.

 Irma plowed into the Florida Keys on Sunday and was forecast to march up the state's west coast.

 Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and several Cabinet members participated in the briefing from Camp David — the presidential retreat where Trump has spent the weekend monitoring the storm.

 Other administration officials joined in from the White House or Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington.

 Pence and several Cabinet secretaries are planning to visit FEMA headquarters later Sunday.

 The White House says Trump has spoken with the governors of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. Irma could affect all four states.

 Florida Gov. Rick Scott says he also spoke with Trump on Sunday.

 ___

 1:05 p.m.

 Deputies shot and wounded a burglar and arrested his accomplice at a Florida home as Hurricane Irma blew in.

 The Broward Sheriff's Office said in a news release Sunday that the homeowners in Weston were out of town but saw the burglars remotely inside the house through a home surveillance system.

 Deputies responded shortly before 3 a.m. and one of the two juvenile males was shot outside the home. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. The other person was arrested.

 Their names were not immediately released.

 ___

 12:55 p.m.

 High winds are impeding Miami authorities' ability to reach a construction crane toppled by Hurricane Irma.

 The crane fell onto a high-rise building that's under construction. It's in a bayfront area filled with hotels and high-rise condo and office buildings, near AmericanAirlines Arena.

 Miami-Dade County Director of Communications Mike Hernandez said emergency personnel couldn't immediately respond to the scene because of high winds. Authorities urged people to avoid the area after the Sunday morning collapse. It wasn't clear if there were any injuries.

 Miami City Manager Daniel Alfonso said the approximately two-dozen other cranes in the city are still upright and built to withstand significant wind gusts.

 The tower cranes working on construction sites throughout the city were a concern ahead of Irma. Moving the massive equipment, weighing up to 30,000 pounds, is a slow process that would have taken about two weeks, according to city officials.

 ____

 12:20 p.m.

 Florida sheriff's deputies rescued a couple who tried to ride out Hurricane Irma on a small sailboat.

 Christine Weiss of the Martin County Sheriff's Office said a passer-by noticed the couple was in trouble Sunday. It happened just off Jensen Beach, which is on the Atlantic Coast north of Palm Beach.

 Video shows a Martin County patrol boat manned by deputies John Howell and James Holloran and Detective Mathew Fritchie pulling up next to the sailboat.

 The task of helping the couple onto their boat was precarious as both boats bobbed in choppy water. Deputies then took them to shore.

 The names of the couple were not released. They were not injured.

 ___

 12:10 p.m.

 Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte says the death toll caused by Hurricane Irma on the Caribbean territory of St. Maarten has risen to four.

 Rutte said Sunday, "unfortunately there are more victims to mourn" after the bodies of two people washed up on the island. He says the identities of the victims are not yet known.

 One of the four people listed as victims by the Dutch authorities died of natural causes as the Category 5 hurricane lashed St. Maarten, badly damaging or destroying 70 percent of homes on the Dutch part of the Caribbean island.

 ___

 11:40 a.m.

 Some Miami Police officers remembered to pack an essential in their hurricane survival pack: Cuban coffee known as cafecito.

 The department tweeted a picture showing a coffee maker atop a camp stove. It read: "As our officers ride out the storm, some have brought the (hashtag) Miami essentials to help them get through the night."

 The strongly caffeinated brew is a staple in Miami.

 Former FEMA administrator Craig Fugate said this week he'd check Cuban coffee stands to gauge Irma's impacts on Miami.

 Fugate is known for creating the so-called "Waffle House Index." Fugate used the Southern restaurant chain as a benchmark for how quickly local communities could rebound from hurricanes.

 Waffle House are known for being open most of the time. Under the index, a closed Waffle House was a bad sign. There are no Waffle Houses in Miami, so Fugate suggested an alternative.

 "Cuban coffee stands - if those are closed, it is bad," he told AP.

 ___

 11:25 a.m.

 President Donald Trump has spoken with the governors of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee as Hurricane Irma moves north.

 All four states could be affected by the storm, which struck the Florida Keys on Sunday.

 The White House says Trump spoke with the officials Sunday from the Camp David presidential retreat, where he was spending the weekend.

 Trump has been in regular contract with Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Sen. Marco Rubio over the past week. Chief of staff John Kelly spoke Sunday with Florida Sen. Bill Nelson.

 Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were scheduled to receive an updated Irma briefing on Sunday.

 ___

 11:15 a.m.

 As Hurricane Irma evacuees fill up Atlanta hotels and shelters, folks are getting creative to offer them a hand.

 About 100 of America's top chefs who had gathered for their annual summit changed gears. They pivoted their planned Monday agenda on "heritage grains" and "how to cut food waste." Now, instead, the chefs will prepare a gourmet feast for Irma refugees and serve it at a church.

 Hotels were full Sunday morning. At the luxury Georgian Terrace Hotel, staff were flexible with rules to accommodate evacuees. Guests walked pit bulls through the lobby. Large families pulled roller bags and clutched blankets as they squeezed into small rooms without enough beds.

 A block away, a church offered free hugs for evacuees.

 And a chalkboard sign outside a restaurant offered a discount: "30% OFF Food with FLORIDA ID for Hurricane evacuees."

 ___

 11:05 a.m.

 The National Hurricane Center says Category 4 Hurricane Irma is now "headed for the southwest Florida coast" as winds continue to pick up speed in all of South Florida.

 Irma continues to be armed with 130 mph winds as its large eye passes north of the Keys.

 Storm surge is forecast for 10 to 15 feet in southwestern Florida.

 Hurricane-force winds are continuing throughout southern Florida, including the Keys. The hurricane center warns that winds affecting upper floors of high-rise building will be much stronger than at ground level.

 The hurricane center also emphasizes that Irma will bring life-threatening wind to much of Florida regardless of the exact track of its center.

 ___

 10:55 a.m.

 Puerto Rico's governor says there will be no classes on Monday because hundreds of schools still do not have power or water after the island took a hit from Hurricane Irma.

 Ricardo Rossello said Sunday that more than 600 schools don't have power and more than 400 don't have water. Another nearly 400 schools don't have either, and dozens are flooded.

 Nearly 600,000 people in the U.S. territory remain without power, representing 40 percent of customers of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.

 ___

 10:50 a.m.

 The National Weather Service says that a crane has collapsed in Miami as strong wind from Hurricane Irma blows in.

 It's one of two-dozen in the city.

 The weather service's Miami office said in a Tweet that one of its employees witnessed the crane boom and counterweight collapse in downtown Miami. The employee captured video of the collapse.

 It wasn't immediately clear if the collapse caused damage or injuries.

 The cranes have been a concern.

 Construction sites across Irma's potential path in Florida were locked down to remove or secure building materials, tools and debris that could be flung by Irma's winds.

 But the horizontal arms of the tall tower cranes remained loose despite the potential danger of collapse. According to city officials, it would have taken about two weeks to move the cranes and there wasn't enough time.

 ___

 10:40 a.m.

 Hurricane Irma's large eye is beginning to move slowly away from the Florida Keys as it continues north with 130 mph (215 kph) winds.

 The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami reported that the center of core of Irma is about 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Key West.

 Irma is so wide that a gust of 93 mph (150 kph) was measured near Key Largo at the other end of the Florida Keys.

 ___

 10:35 a.m.

 A Florida Keys refuge for a unique subspecies of deer is in the crosshairs of Hurricane Irma.

 The Florida Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key is about 10 miles from where the storm made landfall Sunday morning.

 It's the only place in world where you find Key deer, a unique subspecies of white-tailed deer about 3 feet tall at the shoulder — the size of a large dog.

 The herd faced a potential extinction event last year when the first screwworm infestation in the U.S. in 30 years. Fewer than 1,000 of the endangered deer remain, and the parasites that eat the flesh of living mammals killed 135 Key deer before state and federal agriculture authorities stopped the infestation earlier this year.

 ___

 10:30 a.m.

 France's Interior Minister expressed relief that Hurricane Jose spared French Caribbean islands St. Martin and St. Barts further devastation.

 Gerard Collomb, speaking at a press conference in Paris Sunday, said that Jose passed miles away.

 Meanwhile, a spokesman for France's government defended its handling of the hurricane crisis in St. Martin and St. Barts amid criticism that many in the local population felt abandoned by authorities.

 Christophe Castaner, speaking in an interview with Europe1-CNews-Les Echos on Sunday, said he "perfectly (understood) the anger" of residents after Hurricane Irma tore through the French Caribbean islands, killing several people, destroying houses and cutting off the water supply. Some shops were subsequently looted by locals.

 But he insisted the means deployed by the government were robust — with emergency help given "first priority."

 ___

 10:25 a.m.

 Florida officials say 127,000 people across the state have taken refuge in more than 500 shelters as Hurricane Irma takes aim at the state.

 The state Division of Emergency Management did not specify which shelters had the most people.

 Meanwhile, utility officials were warning that the storm could leave millions without power by the time it finishes moving through the state. Already, more than 1.3 million Florida customers were in the dark on Sunday morning as the hurricane made landfall in the Florida Keys.

 Florida Power & Light, the state's largest utility, is reporting on Sunday that many people living in the three populous south Florida counties of Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach are without power. State officials say another 64,000 customers who rely on smaller utilities have also lost electricity.

 ___

 10:10 a.m.

 For the first time, a tropical storm warning has been issued for the city of Atlanta.

 The National Weather Service in Peachtree City, Georgia, said Sunday it was the first time such a warning had been issued for the metro Atlanta area. High wind warnings have been issued in previous storms.

 The warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected within the next 36 hours. Peak winds were expected to reach 30 to 40 mph (48 to 64 kph) with gusts of up to 55 mph (88 kph).

 The weather service says storm threats include damage to porches, carports, sheds and unanchored mobile homes. Roads may become impassable due to debris. Power outages could occur.

 ___

 9:50 a.m.

 Hurricane Irma became tied for the seventh strongest storm to make landfall in U.S. history by a key measurement of atmospheric pressure.

 Hurricane Irma made landfall at Cudjoe Key at 9:10 a.m. with a minimum central pressure of 929 millibars. Atmospheric pressure is one of the major measurements meteorologists use to describe storms. The lower the pressure, the stronger the storm.

 Only six storms on record had lower pressures when striking the United States, including Katrina. When Katrina hit in 2005, it had lower pressure but its wind speed kept it at Category 3.

 The 929 pressure mark ties Irma with the deadly 1928 Lake Okeechobee hurricane.

 Irma's arrival also marks another first.

 Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach says this is the first year on record that the United States has been hit by two storms that were Category 4 upon landfall: Harvey and Irma.

 ___

 9:45 a.m.

 As Hurricane Irma threatened to wallop the St. Petersburg area, several folks got out on the beach ahead of the storm.

 As they milled about Sunday morning, they looked at sailboats bobbing in the wind as the sun rose and took selfies and photos of the beach.

 St. Petersburg resident John Leuders says he feels safe. With stores out of plywood, he tore down part of his fence to board up windows. He came down to the beach out of curiosity and noted the strong winds along the water.

 Another resident, Sally Carlson, says she's been around for other storms and hurricanes, but this one scares her. She says she wanted to see the city one more time before any problems.

 She adds: "I'm hoping it comes out unscathed, but I know better."

 ___

 9:40 a.m.

 Florida utility officials say more than 1 million customers have lost power as Hurricane Irma hits the state.

 Florida Power & Light Company said that nearly 1.1 million customers statewide were without power Sunday morning.

 About 574,000 of those outages were in Miami-Dade County, while there were 360,000 in Broward and nearly 136,000 in Palm Beach County.

 The massive storm made landfall in the Florida Keys, and its center was forecast to move up the state's Gulf Coast. But the effects are being felt far from the center because of Irma's size.

 ___

 9:25 a.m.

 Hurricane Irma has made landfall in the Florida Keys.

 The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said the center of the massive hurricane made landfall on Cudjoe Key in the lower Florida Keys at 9:10 a.m.

 Its top sustained winds are 130 mph (215 kph).

 Forecasters say a gust of 106 mph (171 kph) was reported on Big Pine Key.

 ___

 9:00 a.m.

 The Florida Highway Patrol says two people have died in a head-on crash in a county where Hurricane Irma's wind and rain have started to blow in.

 Agency spokesman Greg Bueno said the crash happened Sunday morning in Hardee County, which is southeast of Tampa.

 It wasn't immediately clear what role the weather may have played. He says troopers are investigating the crash and no further details were immediately available.

 Bueno said in an email that the area is starting to feel the effects of Hurricane Irma.

 The National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for the county, saying a severe thunderstorm was in the area.

 ___

 8:55 a.m.

 The National Hurricane Center forecasts that the core of Hurricane Irma will likely chug directly for the highly populated Tampa-St. Petersburg region after it gets through raking the Keys, but the storm is so massive all of Florida will be feeling the Category 4 hurricane's fury.

 The center of the storm was just off Key West Sunday morning.

 The latest forecast of Irma's eye — which still can change — keeps the nearly 400-mile wide (640-kilometer) storm in the water, barely off the coast of southwestern Florida's Fort Myers and Naples.

 But that also puts that region in the strongest northeast quadrant of the storm, where storm surge, wind, rain and tornado threats are highest.

 And a few miles wiggle could bring Irma's eye — which has measured 30 miles wide (48 kilometers) — inland.

 The storm is moving slowly, about 8 mph (13 kilometers per hour) so its eye is likely to hit the Tampa region around 2 a.m. Monday, but damaging winds, storm, surge, rain and tornadoes will reach the area long before then.

 ___

 8:45 a.m.

 Doctors were forced to talk a Florida woman through delivering her baby at home while Hurricane Irma's outer bands lashed Miami.

 The City of Miami said on its Twitter account early Sunday that firefighters couldn't respond in time to the woman in the Little Haiti neighborhood. So doctors from Jackson Health System talked her through the birth of the baby girl at home.

 Authorities say firefighters were able to make it to the woman Sunday morning and take her to the hospital after the girl was born.

 Miami-Dade fire spokeswoman Erika Benitez said the fire department is responding to calls on a case-by-case basis as strong winds and rain lash the area. They are encouraging residents to stay inside because of downed power lines and debris.

 ___

 8:20 a.m.

 Florida authorities have issued another stern warning about Hurricane Irma: Shooting bullets into the storm won't help keep you safe.

 The Pasco County Sheriff's Office tweeted late Saturday: "DO NOT shoot weapons @ (hashtag) Irma. You won't make it turn around (and) it will have very dangerous side effects."

 The sheriff's office, which is in the Tampa Bay-area, was responding to a Facebook event page created two Florida men inviting people to shoot at Irma.

 The page reads: "YO SO THIS GOOFY ... LETS SHOW IRMA THAT WE SHOOT FIRST ..."

 The invitation presumably was a joke, but 80,000 people indicated they were "going" or "interested" in the event.

 In a tweet early Sunday, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office asked the thousands of people who had shared the page to also share their request for volunteers needed at hurricane shelters.

 ___

 8 a.m.

 Forecasters say Hurricane Irma's center is poised to blow across the Florida Keys.

 The northern eyewall of the storm reached the island chain early Sunday.

 The U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a public advisory that the center of the storm remained offshore but was going to make landfall soon. The storm was centered about 20 miles east (30 km) of Key West, and it was moving north-northwest at 8 mph (13 kph)

 The storm had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215) kph. The National Weather Service reported wind gusts of 90 mph (145 kph) near its Key West office.

 After hitting the Florida Keys, Irma was forecast to move up the state's Gulf Coast later Sunday.

 ___

 7:55 a.m.

 The National Weather Service in Miami has issued tornado warnings for a wide swath of Monroe, Miami-Dade and Broward counties in South Florida.

 Officials say the band of rain and tornado producing cells is moving quickly.

 There have been no reports of tornadoes touching down.

 ___

 7:50 a.m.

 Authorities are urging people who chose to ride out Hurricane Irma in the Florida Keys to remain indoors until the storm passes.

 The storm's eyewall reached the chain of islands Sunday morning. The National Weather Service reported wind gusts of 90 mph (145 kph) near its Key West office.

 In a Facebook post early Sunday, Key West Police urged people who stayed for the hurricane to remain where they took shelter until the storm had passed completely. They also urged people not to go outside when the eye of the storm is over there area, a time period when conditions can seem deceptively calm.

 John Huston, who is riding out the storm from his home in Key Largo in the upper Keys, says the wind gusts are strong in his area.

 "Water level is higher today," he said via text message Sunday morning. "Incredible wind that won't stop."

 ___

 7:05 a.m.

 Hurricane Irma's eyewall has reached the Florida Keys.

 The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says the storm's northern eyewall reached the lower Florida Keys Sunday morning. The eyewall is a band of clouds surrounding the center of the storm that has intense winds and strong rain.

 The hurricane center says Key West International Airport has measured sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph).

 ___

 7:00 a.m.

 Hundreds of thousands of people are without power in Florida as Hurricane Irma's winds and rain lash the state.

 Irma's center was over water off Key West early Sunday, but places including Miami were being hit with strong winds and rain.

 Florida Power & Light Company said that about 430,000 customers were without power Sunday morning. Miami-Dade County had the most outages with about 250,000. Broward County had 130,000 outages. Palm Beach County had more than 40,000 outages.

 The utility said that it has mobilized crews and is working to restore power as it can.

 ___

 6:30 a.m.

 With Hurricane Irma closing in on Florida, the storm's winds are already lashing parts of the state.

 In Key West, Carol Walterson Stroud and her family are huddled in a third floor apartment at a senior center.

 Stroud said early Sunday that the wind was blowing hard, but her family was OK. In a text message to a reporter, she said: "We are good so far."

 As of 6 a.m. EDT, forecasters say the Category 4 storm is centered about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of the island.

 The 60-year-old is with her husband and granddaughter and their dog. Stroud says she plans to step outside once the "eye" of the hurricane passes over later Sunday.

 Meanwhile, to the north, access to all of Pinellas County's barrier islands, including the popular spring break destination of Clearwater Beach, has been shut off.

 ___

 6:10 a.m.

 The eye of Hurricane Irma is very close to the lower Florida Keys.

 As of 6 a.m. EDT, the U.S. National Hurricane Center says the Category 4 storm is centered about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south-southeast of Key West, Florida, and is moving northwest at 8 mph (13 kph).

 Irma's maximum sustained winds are near 130 mph (215 kph). The hurricane center says weakening is forecast but Irma is expected to remain a powerful hurricane as it moves through the Florida Keys and near Florida's west coast.

 ___

 6:10 a.m.

 France and the Netherlands say their islands in the Caribbean were spared major damage from Hurricane Jose, which passed farther away from the islands than expected.

 The Sunday announcements — coming from France's national weather service and the Dutch navy — were good news for islands that had already been devastated by Hurricane Irma last week.

 Meteo-France said Jose's center passed overnight about 75 miles (125 kilometers) from St. Martin and 80 miles (135 kilometers) from St. Barts, though it still produced gales of up to 48 mph (80 kph) around the islands.

 In a tweet Sunday, the Netherlands' navy says the situation after Jose passed north of the islands overnight is "better than expected." Scores of marines and troops will resume their efforts to restore vital infrastructure and distribute food and water on St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius.

 In a separate tweet, the navy said the security situation on St. Maarten, which saw widespread looting and robberies after Hurricane Irma, has improved thanks to patrols by marines and police flown to the island to help overwhelmed local law enforcement.

 ___

 5:10 a.m.

 Hurricane Irma has sped up slightly and its eye is about to move across the lower Florida Keys early Sunday.

 The hurricane is centered about 40 miles (65 kilometers) south-southeast of Key West, Florida, and is moving north-northwest near 8 mph (13 kph).

 Irma is a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 130 mph (215 kph). The U.S. National Hurricane Center says weakening is forecast but Irma is expected to remain a powerful hurricane as it moves through the Florida Keys and near Florida's west coast.

 Tens of thousands in Florida are huddled in shelters as the hurricane threatens to make a catastrophic hit on the state.

 ___

 5:10 a.m.

 Dutch King Willem-Alexander is flying to the Caribbean to meet survivors of Hurricane Irma who were evacuated there from the hard-hit island of St. Maarten.

 Meanwhile, Dutch tourists stranded for days on St. Maarten are hoping to finally get flights home.

 Willem-Alexander was to fly Sunday to the island of Curacao to visit a hospital where more than 60 patients from St. Maarten who require kidney dialysis were flown for treatment over the last two days by the Dutch military.

 If the weather is good enough, the monarch will later fly onward to St. Maarten and two other smaller islands hit by Irma on Wednesday to offer his support to the thousands of residents and Dutch marines helping to clear the island, where some 70 percent of homes were badly damaged or destroyed by the Category 5 storm.

 The Dutch navy tweeted Sunday that it plans to evacuate tourists from the island's shattered resorts.

 ___

 4:10 a.m.

 The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Irma is bearing down on the lower Florida Keys early Sunday.

 A National Ocean Service station on a coral reef near the Keys has recorded sustained winds of 66 mph (105 kph) with a gust up to 85 mph (137 kph). Key West International Airport has measured sustained winds of 43 mph (69 kph) with a gust up to 73 mph (117 kph).

 Irma is centered about 55 miles (90 kilometers) south-southeast of Key West, Florida, and is moving northwest near 6 mph (9 kph).

 ___

 3:15 a.m.

 A re-strengthened Hurricane Irma is continuing to move toward the western Florida Keys early Sunday.

 The hurricane has regained Category 4 status with maximum sustained winds near 130 mph (210 kph) and is centered about 65 miles (105 kilometers) southeast of Key West, Florida.

 The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the Miami Executive Airport has measured a sustained wind speed of 46 mph (74 kph) with a gust of up to 61 mph (98 kph).

 Tens of thousands in Florida are huddled in shelters as the hurricane threatens to make a catastrophic hit on the state.

 ___

 2:10 a.m.

 Hurricane Irma has regained Category 4 strength as it moves toward Florida, where it's feared to make a devastating hit.

 Irma's maximum sustained winds increased early Sunday to near 130 mph (210 kph) and it's expected to gain a little more strength as it moves through the Straits of Florida and remain a powerful hurricane as it approaches Florida.

 Irma is centered about 70 miles (115 kilometers) south-southeast of Key West, Florida, and is moving northwest near 6 mph (9 kph).

 ___

 1:40 a.m.

 Hurricane Irma is closing in on the Florida Keys with top winds of 120 mph (190 kph) early Sunday as forecasters monitored a crucial shift in its trajectory that could keep its ferocious eye off the southwest Florida coast and over warm gulf water.

 Tens of thousands of people huddling in shelters watched for updates as the storm swung to the west, now potentially sparing Tampa as well Miami the catastrophic head-on blow forecasters had been warning about.

 But those few miles meant St. Petersburg could get a direct hit, rather than its more populous twin across Tampa Bay.

 The leading edge of the immense storm bent palm trees and spit rain across South Florida, knocking out power to more than 170,000 homes and businesses, as the eye approached Key West. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Hurricane Irma has made a second landfall in Florida as it moves up the state's west coast. No. 2 came at 3:35pm at Marco Island, about 15 miles from Naples, while Irma was a Category 3 storm, per the Guardian. As of 5pm, it had been downgraded to a Category 2, though winds were still a powerful 110mph. That is technically below "major hurricane" status, notes the AP, though the distinction may be small comfort to cities along its path. Perhaps the biggest concern continues to be the densely populated Tampa-St. Petersburg area, thought to be "woefully ill-equipped" to handle such a big storm, per the Washington Post. Irma should arrive there after midnight. “Today is going to the be the long day,” says Mark DeMaria of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Though Miami avoided a direct hit, the driving rain and storm surges have flooded parts of the downtown area, particularly the Brickell neighborhood. And two construction cranes have collapsed onto buildings in Miami, though no casualties were reported. In Palm Bay, also on the east coast, a related tornado destroyed six mobile homes, reports USA Today. Irma is on track to hit Georgia Monday morning, and a state of emergency was in effect for all 159 counties. On Sunday morning, Irma made its first landfall at Cudjoe Key in the Florida Keys.


Article:
Owen Labrie, the former St. Paul’s School student convicted last year of having sex with an underclassman at the elite Granite State boarding school, will soon be set free on bail -- again.

 After two months in jail, a New Hampshire judge ruled today the 20-year-old can post bail while he awaits his appeal. He will be put on a GPS monitor.

 Labrie was convicted last October of sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child and prohibited use of a computer and released on $15,000 bail while he appealed on the conditions that he live at his mother’s Tunbridge, Vermont, home and abide by a 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. curfew.

 On Feb. 29, a reporter tweeted about an encounter with him on a train in Cambridge, where he said he was visiting his girlfriend at Harvard University.

 Those tweets led to an investigation in which police found that he had violated his curfew at least 12 times, officials said. His bail was then revoked.

 His lawyer successfully argued for his release again today before Merrimack County Judge Larry Smukler.

 Develioping ... ||||| A prep school graduate convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old freshman girl as part of a game of sexual conquest called Senior Salute will again be free pending appeal.

 Owen Labrie had been free after his conviction last year, but a judge revoked his bail in March after he admitted violating his curfew. He appealed to the state Supreme Court, which last week returned the matter to the trial court.

 Labrie's attorney argued at a hearing on Monday that being locked up for two months has been a "life-changing" experience for him and he'll comply with any additional conditions.

 A state prosecutor countered that the only thing that's changed is Labrie, of Tunbridge, Vermont, doesn't like being in jail.

 A Merrimack County Superior Court judge said he'll allow Labrie to be released with electronic monitoring via GPS. The earliest Labrie would be released is Wednesday, and the latest is Friday, prosecutors said.

 Labrie was arrested in 2014 days after graduating from St. Paul's School in Concord. He was 18 years old then and is 20 now.

 During his trial, he testified that he and the girl had consensual sexual contact, but he denied having sexual intercourse with her. He acknowledged he had boasted to the contrary to friends, in profane emails and social media posts that were shared with the jury.

 The encounter between Labrie and the girl took place in a nearly deserted building whose roof had a panoramic view of the school's 2,000-acre campus. After a brief time on the roof, the girl testified, Labrie led her to a dark mechanical room, they consensually kissed and touched each other and he raped her.

 Labrie had been bound for Harvard University and had planned to take divinity classes before his arrest put everything on hold. He wept upon hearing the verdict last year. ||||| CONCORD — St. Paul’s School sex-trial convict Owen Labrie won a second chance at freedom Monday, when a judge said he can be released on bail while his lawyers challenge his conviction.Superior Court Judge Larry Smukler said Labrie, 20, can get out of jail once he is fitted with an electronic monitor that is tracked via GPS. Merrimack County officials said that will likely take place between Wednesday and Friday.“It’s clear that Mr. Labrie did break the trust of the court,” Smukler said. He added that he’s not 100 percent sure that Labrie will now comply, thus the need for monitoring.“To paraphrase another person, trust but verify,” the judge said.Labrie appeared at a Merrimack County Superior Court hearing in an orange prison jumpsuit with his ankles shackled. He was handcuffed and returned to jail once the hearing ended.Labrie’s lawyer Jaye Rancourt said Labrie and his family are happy with the decision. During a Monday afternoon hearing, she said the prep-school graduate will abide by the rules, and said her client had suffered sadness, fear, nervousness and boredom in his two months at jail.He moved out of administrative segregation just in the past week, she said.“He understands why he’s there. He will abide by the conditions,” she said. Those include residing at his mother’s Vermont home between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. Rancourt said Labrie will have a job working in manual labor.“I think a regular person wouldn’t have had his bail revoked,” Rancourt said when asked about Labrie’s treatment. “I think he’s been under intense scrutiny and probably treated more strictly than some.”His lawyers admit he violated bail several times earlier this year. The case went public when a reporter wrote about seeing him in March on an MBTA train, where Labrie said he was visiting his girlfriend in college.“Our concern is the safety of the community,” said Merrimack County prosecutor Catherine Ruffles. She noted Labrie was visiting a college campus and said he had not meaningfully participated in a psycho-sexual assessment.Without the assessment, Ruffles said she can’t determine the level of risk for the community.Meanwhile, the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence said the decision sends the wrong message to victims of crime.“When there is a lack of respect for our court system, people should be held accountable. When offenders do not face consequences for their actions, victims are the ones that pay the price,” spokesman Maureen McDonald said in an email.Labrie was released on bail after his conviction last summer on three misdemeanor sexual assault charges, a misdemeanor child endangerment charge and a felony unlawful computer use charge.He has appealed the conviction, but he is also seeking a new trial, claiming ineffective counsel.mhayward@unionleader.com.. |||||Summary:

– Owen Labrie, the prep school graduate found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old classmate, has been given another shot at remaining free while he appeals the verdict, the New Hampshire Union Leader reports. The 20-year-old, whose bail was revoked two months ago when authorities discovered he had repeatedly violated his curfew, will be freed on bail again after he's fitted with a GPS monitor this week, reports the Boston Herald. Labrie's lawyer, Jaye Rancourt, says he has been frightened and sad during his time in prison, most of which was spent on administrative segregation, and he plans to abide by bail conditions, including living at his mother's home in Vermont under a 5pm to 8am curfew. After his conviction last year, Labrie was sentenced to a year in jail. Rancourt says Labrie will be working in manual labor while out on bail. The curfew violations that sent him to jail were exposed by a reporter he chatted to on a train. "I think a regular person wouldn't have had his bail revoked," Rancourt says. "I think he's been under intense scrutiny and probably treated more strictly than some." At Monday's hearing, Rancourt told the judge that jail time had been a "life-changing" experience for Labrie, though a state prosecutor argued that the only real change is that Labrie has discovered he doesn't like jail, reports WCVB. (Labrie's arrest and trial exposed the "Senior Salute" tradition of sexual conquest at the elite St. Paul's school in New Hampshire.)


Here is a news article: Two years ago, Ellen Martinsen, was collecting mosquitoes at the Smithsonian's National Zoo, looking for malaria that might infect birds--when she discovered something strange: a DNA profile, from parasites in the mosquitoes, that she couldn't identify.

 By chance, she had discovered a malaria parasite, Plasmodium odocoilei--that infects white-tailed deer. It's the first-ever malaria parasite known to live in a deer species and the only native malaria parasite found in any mammal in North or South America. Though white-tailed deer diseases have been heavily studied--scientist hadn't noticed that many have malaria parasites.

 Martinsen and her colleagues estimate that the parasite infects up to twenty-five percent of white-tailed deer along the East Coast of the United States. Their results were published February 5 in Science Advances.

 IN HIDING

 "You never know what you're going to find when you're out in nature--and you look," says Martinsen, a research associate at the Smithsonian's Conservation Biology Institute and adjunct faculty in the University of Vermont's biology department. "It's a parasite that has been hidden in the most iconic game animal in the United States. I just stumbled across it."

 The new study, led by Martinsen, was a collaboration with scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, the American Museum of Natural History, the National Park Service, the University of Georgia, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee--and UVM biologist and malaria expert Joseph Schall.

 Though Martinsen and Schall are quick to note that they anticipate little danger to people from this newly discovered deer malaria, it does underline the fact that many human health concerns are connected to wider ecological systems--and that understanding the biology of other species is a foundation to both conservation and public health management. Zika virus is recently making worrisome headlines and "there's a sudden surge in interest in mosquito biology across the United States," says Schall. "This is a reminder of the importance of parasite surveys and basic natural history."

 In 1967, a renowned malaria researcher reported he'd discovered malaria in a single deer in Texas. But the received understanding was that "malaria wasn't supposed to be in mammals in the New World," says Schall, who has studied malaria for decades. "It was like the guy was reporting he saw Big Foot," and no other discoveries were made after that.

 But now Martinsen and her colleagues have discovered that the deer malaria is widespread--though it's "cryptic" she says, because the parasites occur in very low levels in many of the infected deer. "Ellen spent days and days looking through a microscope at slides that were mostly empty," Schall says, but eventually found the parasites. Combined with sensitive molecular PCR techniques to understand the genetics, the team confirmed a high prevalence of the disease--between eighteen and twenty-five percent--in sites ranging from New York to West Virginia to Louisiana.

 NATIVE SPECIES

 The new discovery fundamentally changes our understanding of the distribution and evolutionary history of malaria parasites in mammals, Martinsen says. Some scientists wondered if the deer malaria could have jumped from people or zoo animals in the recent past. But the new study suggests otherwise. The team's data shows that the deer actually carry two genetic lineages of the malaria parasites--"probably different species," she says--and that the two lineages are substantially different from each other.

 This divergence between the two forms of malaria was used by the scientists as a kind of molecular clock. "We can date the evolutionary split between those two lineages," Martinsen says--to 2.3 to 6 million years ago. Which probably means that when the ancient evolutionary ancestors to white-tailed deer traveled from Eurasia across the Bering Land Bridge to North America in the Miocene, some 4.2 to 5.7 million years ago--malaria came along for the ride. "We think malaria is native to the Americas," Martinsen says, "that it's been here for millions of years."

 Malaria is a major problem for people in many parts of the world--and for many species of wildlife too. It has been devastating bird species in Hawaii and Bermuda, among many epidemics. Whether it is hurting white-tailed deer in America is an open question. Martinsen suspects not, because she'd expect to see more obviously sick animals. But Schall wonders if, like some human malaria infections, the disease causes a low-level burden that hurts deer populations. They both agree that it is an area that calls for more research--and that the new study raises many other questions, including whether the parasite might infect dairy cows or other hoofed species.

 Ellen Martinsen completed her undergraduate and doctoral training at UVM in Joe Schall's lab and went on to do her postdoctoral research at the Smithonian Conservation Biology Institute's Center for Conservation Genetics. The new discovery drew on a team of scientists and veterinarians at the Smithsonian and other institutions, who studied samples from both live and necropsied deer as well as mosquitoes. Additionally, Martinsen returned to Schall's lab for some of the new research.

 "Malaria is a top parasitic disease in humans and wildlife," Ellen Martinsen says. "It's important that we gain a better understanding of its diversity and distribution not just across humans but across other species too."

 ### ||||| North America’s most popular game species, the white-tailed deer, harbors a secret: low levels of a malaria parasite that have only now been detected thanks to advanced DNA technology. Though this particular species of parasite poses little risk to humans, researchers say the find could reshape our understanding of malaria’s origins.

 There are more than 100 species of malaria parasites, distributed on every continent except Antarctica. Those that infect birds and lizards are widely distributed, even on seemingly isolated ocean islands, and certainly in the Americas. Yet scientists believed that the microorganisms that infect mammals originated in the Old World, mainly Africa and Asia.

 The new findings were discovered by chance. Researchers led by Ellen Martinsen, a biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s genetics center in Washington, D.C., were searching for the source of malaria parasites in birds at the national zoo. Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology, which amplifies DNA to make it easier to study, they identified a genetic signature of an unexpected malaria parasite, Plasmodium odocoilei, previously unknown in the Americas. The researchers were able to obtain a large enough sample of blood from the mosquito’s enlarged abdomen to trace its origin to white-tailed deer. “We weren’t out there, testing a hypothesis,” Martinsen says. “We serendipitously stumbled upon this weird sequence.”

 To find out how common the infections are, the researchers screened more than 300 white-tailed deer with PCR. They found 41 animals harbored the parasite, from 10 of the 17 states surveyed. No infected deer were identified in the west, but in the east, malaria parasites were widespread. Twenty-five percent of the animals tested at sites in Virginia and West Virginia carried them, the team reports today in Science Advances.

 No signs of the parasite turned up in the other hooved species they tested, including cows, gazelles, goats, elk, oryx, alpaca, donkeys, and Przewalski horses.

 The study marks the first finding of a malaria parasite species of mammals that is native to the Americas. (Scientists had largely discounted the significance of a 1967 report of what appears to be the same parasite in single specimen of white-tailed deer in Texas.)

 The new research suggests that these malaria parasites have a long evolutionary history in the New World, dating back to the ancestors of white-tailed deer that made their way to the continent across the Bering Land Bridge 2.3 million to 6 million years ago Other as-yet-to-be discovered malaria parasites of mammals may be “hidden in plain sight,” the researchers write.

 The findings are especially surprising in light of how intensively the popular game species has been studied, says David Hewitt, a wildlife biologist at Texas A&M University, Kingsville, who was not involved in the research. “This story suggests there is still much we don’t know about the natural world.”

 Martinsen says future research should examine whether low-level parasite infection has caused disease in deer that previously has been undetected. |||||
A summary of this is?

– Talk about a surprise: Two years ago, scientists researching avian malaria happened to learn that two strains of the parasite are infecting white-tailed deer—possibly 25% of those living on the East Coast, Smithsonian reports. Until then, no endemic malaria had been seen in North or South American mammals. "You never know what you're going to find when you're out in nature—and you look," says lead study author Ellen Martinsen, per a press release. "It's a parasite that has been hidden in the most iconic game animal in the United States. I just stumbled across it." Her team was screening mosquitoes for avian malaria at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, DC, when they stumbled across some surprise DNA and found that the insect had fed on white-tailed deer. Researchers then screened more than 300 white-tailed deer and found the parasite in 41 of them, in roughly half the states studied, Science reports. None were in the west, but it was common in the east, particularly in West Virginia and Virginia. Seems the two malaria species pose little risk to deer or to people: Though humans haven't been tested for the strains yet, co-author Robert Fleischer says "if it’s getting into humans, which it probably is, it probably isn’t able to reproduce. ... This is not Zika virus." The deer's ancestors may have brought the parasite into North America by way of the Beringia land bridge millions of years ago, researchers say. So how is it no one noticed malaria before in the much-studied deer? "This story suggests there is still much we don’t know about the natural world," says a biologist not involved in the study. (Meanwhile, Lyme disease is spreading across US counties.)


Write an article based on this summary:

– After two decades of searching, archaeologists have finally discovered the location of a Spanish fort missing for 450 years: a golf course in South Carolina, the Beaufort Gazette reports. According to the AP, Fort San Marcos—built in 1577 and occupied for five years—was discovered last month under a golf course on Parris Island by two researchers. They used improving technology, included radar and magnetic waves, to succeed where years of old-fashioned hole digging had failed, the Post and Courier reports. While the remains of Fort San Marcos are still buried, the location in itself is a hard-won and important find. “This work will allow us to tell the story of the land that would eventually become the United States,” one of the researchers says. Fort San Marcos was built more than 100 years before English settlers arrived in what is now South Carolina. Spanish documents give a description and drawing of the fort, but not its location—that was finally given away by the fort's old post holes. Fort San Marcos was built in the settlement of Santa Elena, which was discovered in 1979—nearly 100 years after it was abandoned in the midst of attacks by the English. It consisted of barracks, storerooms, and 11 cannons. Researchers employed the same method used to discover the location of Fort San Marcos to learn a little more about Santa Elena, mapping its shops, taverns, a church, and more.

Improved technology helped archaeologists finally locate a 16th-century Spanish fort on what is now Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island.

 Archaeologists had been looking for San Marcos, one of several forts built on the Santa Elena settlement, for more than 20 years. The location was nailed down using radar and magnetometers.

 The machines have been in play for archaeologists for years, but the computer programs interpreting the data have vastly improved in recent years, said University of Georgia archaeologist Victor Thompson. Thompson has worked on the site with University of South Carolina archaeologist Chester DePratter, whose search for San Marcos began in 1993.

 The general location of the fort had been noted using documents archived in Spain. There was a drawing of the fort and a written description but nothing detailing the location.

 Traditional digging methods had failed to find the fort.

 “We can’t go to a map and say ‘oh, this is where Pedro Menendez lived or this is where that fort was or this is where anything was,’ ” DePratter said. “So we have to figure it out.”

 The fort was founded in 1577 by Pedro Menendez Marquez. The outpost went up in six days, with large pieces already made off-site to protect against an attack by Native Americans.

 Though the actual wooden materials have long become part of the earth, the fort could be found by identifying the large post holes required to support the two-story structure and from other signs of human interaction.

 “Anytime humans occupy an area for an extended period of time, they alter the physical characteristics of the subsurface,” Thompson said. “If floors become compacted, we can see that. If posts were dug in but then removed, we can see that.

 As long as there is some physical change that accompanies those behaviors, then we can image it.”

 Santa Elena was founded in 1566 by Pedro Menendez de Aviles. Its whereabouts remained a mystery until 1979, when archaeologists found evidence while digging on the Parris Island golf course.

 DePratter and Thompson have been working on the site this summer with a small team of doctoral students and undergraduates.

 They are working to map the entire town of Santa Elena, believed to have included some 60 homes as well as a church, shops and taverns. They believe they are also close to knowing the location of Pedro Menendez de Aviles’ home, which can be distinguished from the other home sites by high-end Chinese wares no one else in the settlement could have afforded, DePratter said.

 He believes they have also found another governor’s home nearby.

 The team is working in open fields that were once fairways of the golf course, since moved to accommodate the archaeological work.

 DePratter began his search in 1993 digging small test holes all the way to the golf course clubhouse. He uncovered a pottery kiln — a chamber where the wares were heated and hardened — but no fort.

 DePratter returned five years later and had play diverted on the golf course to explore again, digging a little too far south of where the fort was eventually found.

 Before DePratter and Thompson began mapping again, no digging had been done on the site since 2008 and no large-scale projects since 2000. DePratter reached out to Thompson because of his colleague’s experience with the technology.

 Thompson, in a black floppy hat and short-sleeve plaid shirt, unfurled a map Tuesday with a grid of blocks the team has mapped. Each is about 400 square feet.

 The work is done in part by pushing a black, three-wheeled cart toting the radar along the ground. A magnetometer and resistivity meter are also used.

 In determining the fort’s location, there was no breakthrough moment as when DePratter dinged the pottery kiln. Instead, the work was a compilation of layers of data and ruling out Native American artifacts and sites housing Marine structures during the early 20th century.

 The scientists have the cooperation of the Marine Corps and come and go as they please. The remote spot behind the golf course means a protected site with few visitors — most recently Marines on their lunch break visited Santa Elena to play the popular phone app “Pokemon Go.”

 Despite the breakthrough on the fort’s location, another six to nine months is required to process the data and learn what has been found. The new discovery will be published this week in the Journal of Archeological Science: Reports, according to a news release.

 The resulting information will be included in future exhibits at the Santa Elena History Center, which opened this year in downtown Beaufort to tell the story of the early settlement.

 “Days like today are the reason we established the foundation with a vision to uncover this significant history,” Santa Elena Foundation chairman and CEO Andy Beall said in a release. ||||| Archaeologists Chester DePratter (left) and Victor Thompson (right) have mapped the early colonial Fort San Marcos by running ground penetrating radar and using other high tech equipment.

 Five centuries ago, two Spanish warships sailed to a marsh bank in the Lowcountry, a coastal jungle haunted by panthers, bison, elk and people the sailors considered savages. The bank was a foothold into the New World also sought by the French. The ships carried wood posts and planking to build a fort.

 Today, researchers using radar, electric currents and magnetic waves have pinpointed exactly where they built it. Ground-penetrating radar and magnetometers located the outlines of the lost Fort San Marcos near Beaufort, amid the footprint of a church, courts, shops, taverns and farms that comprised the 1566 settlement of Santa Elena.

 Archeologists knew about where it was, but the organic residue remains of the 16th century structures were buried underground in the midst of 16 acres that also are the site of the earlier French settlement of Charlesfort, on the edge of a golf course in today’s Marine Corps Recruit Depot.

 Now archaeologists have the key to dig deeper into a past that some call the “lost century” of the state’s history, some 104 years before English settlers landed at Charles Towne on the banks of the Ashley River about 50 miles north. In other words, they can now begin to bring that history to life.

 “This work will allow us to tell the story of the land that would eventually become the United States. Santa Elena is an important part of this history that lends insight into how colonial powers in Europe vied for control over this corner of the New World,” said Victor Thompson, University of Georgia anthropologist, who worked with University of South Carolina archaeologist Chester DePratter at the site.

 Fort San Marcos founder Pedro Menendez de Aviles “didn’t leave us with a map of Santa Elena, so remote sensing is allowing us to create a town plan that will be important to interpreting what happened here 450 years ago and for planning future research,” DePratter said.

 The breakthrough in June came after a number of failed attempts to locate the site with exploratory digs. The finding is scheduled to be published this week in the Journal of Archeology Science Reports, according to a University of South Carolina news release.

 Fort San Marcos was built in 1577. Menendez’ crews got it up in six days because of the threat that a Native American tribe would attack. It allowed the Spanish to restore Santa Elena, which settlers had abandoned the year before when it was attacked.

 The fort was a large bunkhouse of barracks and storerooms with cannon platform on one end, according to the release. It had 11 mounted cannons, the largest weighing more than 5,400 pounds.

 After five years, the wooden posts surrounding the fort rotted, and a new fort, also called San Marcos was built on the nearby shoreline.

 The restored Santa Elena grew to nearly 400 residents, impressive enough to be named the capital of Spanish Florida in 1571.

 But after English privateer Sir Francis Drake began attacking Spanish settlements, the settlement was abandoned in 1587 for Fort Augustine in today’s Florida.

 Among other remains image-mapped at the site are what the archaeologists described as a vast array of possible wells, houses, posts and ditches.

 “Santa Elena is providing once again an unprecedented view of the 16th-century landscape. This is one of the best sites for remote sensing that I’ve ever had the privilege to work on,” Thompson said.

 Reach Bo Petersen at 843-937-5744, @bopete on twitter or Bo Petersen Reporting on Facebook. ||||| In this undated image provided by Amanda Thompson with the University of Georgia shows archeologists Chester DePratter, left, with the University of South Carolina and Victor Thompson, right, of the University... (Associated Press)

 In this undated image provided by Amanda Thompson with the University of Georgia shows archeologists Chester DePratter, left, with the University of South Carolina and Victor Thompson, right, of the University of Georgia, running ground penetrating radar across a land grid. Archaeologists have found... (Associated Press)

 PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — Archaeologists have found the location of a long-sought Spanish fort on the South Carolina coast at the site of what was once the first capital of Spanish Florida.

 A release from the University of South Carolina says the site of San Marcos, one of five forts built during the 21-year history of the early settlement of Santa Elena, has finally been located on Parris Island near Hilton Head Island.

 University of South Carolina archaeologist Chester DePratter and Victor Thompson of the Center for Archaeological Sciences at the University of Georgia, have conducted research for the past two years to find the site of the 1577 fort.

 Using ground-penetrating radar and other high-tech equipment last month, they found the site and are publishing the details of their work this week in The Journal of Archaeology Science Reports.

 Santa Elena, founded in 1566 to protect Spanish shipping interests, was the first capital of Spanish colonial Florida. The site of the settlement itself was located back in 1979 beneath a golf course at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island.

 But the site of San Marcos remained a mystery.

 Using the high-tech equipment, scientists were able to measure differences in local magnetic fields to locate the fort. They were also able to map where buildings stood on the 15-acre Santa Elena settlement. Those buildings included a church, courts, shops, taverns and farms.

 There are no historical documents with a map of Santa Elena, DePratter said.

 "Remote sensing is allowing us to create a town plan that will be important to interpreting what happened here 450 years ago and for planning future research," he said.

 "Santa Elena is providing once again an unprecedented view of the 16th-century landscape," Thompson added.

 Parris island is located between Hilton Head and Beaufort on the lower South Carolina coast.

 Back in April, events were held in the Beaufort area to mark the 450th anniversary of the founding of Santa Elena. They included the opening of the Santa Elena History Center and a visit to the area by a replica of a Spanish galleon. |||||


Crawls performed by Internet Archive on behalf of the National Library of Australia. This data is currently not publicly accessible. ||||| Most psychologists agree that a person's basic personality—whether they are an introvert or extrovert, for example—remains the same throughout life. What we might see as personality changes are actually just responses to external factors, such as getting a job, getting married or becoming a parent. That said, research does indicate that our personalities become more solidified, or stable, as we get older.

 That change is not linear, however. New research indicates that our personalities become increasingly stable as our 20s melt into our 30s, 40s and even 50s, but that that stability then often begins to taper off in old age, Research Digest reports.

 Researchers in New Zealand recruited 4,000 men and women aged 20 to 80 to complete a personality questionnaire twice, with a gap of two years in between. The survey measured a person's honesty-humility factor as well as five major personality traits: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience, Research Digest writes. They compared how people's scores varied between years, and analyzed how all of the participants personalities related to one another, depending on age.

 Most people's personalities were generally stable, they found, but the stability of those trait followed a bell curve over time, peaking at middle-age and then dropping again. For certain traits—conscientiousness, openness to experience, and honesty-humility—Research Digest writes, the oldest participants' personality stability matched those of the youngest.

 Other interesting finds included "domain specific" variations, or ones that seem to be linked to what a person is dealing with at a particular point in their life. People in their 30s, for example, showed high levels of neuroticism, but by the time they reached their 50s that had tapered off and had been replaced by conscientiousness, openness and honesty-humility. |||||

Write a summary.

– There's no doubt about it: The human body goes through major changes in youth and old age. And these biological and social changes may be the reasons behind what researchers are calling less stable personalities at those life stages. In fact, according to a study of almost 4,000 New Zealanders between the ages of 20 and 80, the stability of one's personality increases through youth and into middle age and peaks in our 50s, before we slide back into less stable versions of ourselves, reports Research Digest. As the Smithsonian puts it, "in some ways, our 80-year-old selves mirror our 20-year-old selves." Some traits peaked at different times; the most stable traits in one's 30s are extraversion and neuroticism, while in the late 40s and early 50s it is openness, honesty-humility, and conscientiousness. The only trait that showed "gradually reduced stability" throughout life was agreeableness; apparently we are simply less and less agreeable as we pack the years on. Still, one's most basic personality—introvert vs. extrovert, for example—tends to remain consistent throughout one's life, even if the stability of traits waxes and wanes, notes the Smithsonian. (Other researchers have even calculated the country's most extroverted city.)