Hazel Salazar walks her two small dogs past boarded up store front windows on the beach side in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017, as Hurricane Irma approaches. Jacob Langston/Orlando Sentinel... (Associated Press) 
 
 ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Irma began its assault on Florida early Sunday with the storm's northern eyewall reaching the lower Florida Keys as a powerful Category 4 storm. 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 Key West International Airport measured sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph) with a gust of up to 70 mph (113 kph), according to the hurricane center. As the hurricane's eye approached the Florida Keys early Sunday, 60-year-old Carol Walterson Stroud and her family were huddled in a third floor apartment at a senior center in Key West. "We are good so far," she said in a text message just before 5:30 a.m. "It's blowing hard." Forecasters said the greater Miami area of 6 million people could still get life-threatening hurricane winds and storm surge of 4 to 6 feet. Stroud was with her husband, Tim Stroud, and granddaughter, Sierra Costello. 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. 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). 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. Irma lashed the area with maximum sustained winds near 130 mph (215 kph) and the U.S. National Hurricane Center said it was expected to remain a powerful storm as it moved through the Florida Keys and near the state's west coast. 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). Given its mammoth size and strength and its course up the peninsula, it could prove one of the most devastating hurricanes ever to hit Florida, and inflict damage on a scale not seen here in 25 years. 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 for days. 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.
– Hurricane Irma has made landfall in the Florida Keys, reports the AP. The US National Hurricane Center in Miami said the center of the massive hurricane made landfall on Cudjoe Key in the lower Florida Keys at 9:10am. Its top sustained winds are 130mph. Irma earlier began its assault with the storm's northern eyewall reaching the lower Florida Keys as a powerful Category 4 storm. The US National Hurricane Center said it was expected to remain a powerful storm as it moved through the Florida Keys and near the state's west coast, reports the AP. The storm is moving slowly, about 8mph, so its eye is likely to hit the Tampa region around 2am Monday, but damaging winds, storm, surge, rain, and tornadoes will reach the area long before then. The immense storm has now knocked out power to more than 1 million homes and businesses. As the hurricane's eye approached the Florida Keys early Sunday, 60-year-old Carol Walterson Stroud and her family were huddled in a third floor apartment at a senior center in Key West. "We are good so far," she said in a text just before 5:30am. "It's blowing hard." Stroud was with her husband, Tim Stroud, and granddaughter, Sierra Costello. Their dog Rocky was also riding out the storm. Stroud said she planned to step outside once the eye of the hurricane passed over. She said she has stood in the eye of a hurricane before and it's "total peace and quiet."