Two people have died in Georgia and the first person has been killed in South Carolina as a result of Hurricane Irma after the powerful storm hammered Florida.
Irma’s eye finally left Florida at about 5.30pm Monday – exiting the state as a weak tropical storm with 50-mph winds.
The National Hurricane Center says the storm’s center is over southwestern Georgia, about 10 miles east of Albany. It is forecast to take a northwest turn Tuesday morning, moving into Alabama.
The death toll from the deadly storm continued to rise Monday after one person was reported dead in Sandy Springs, north of Atlanta.
A 62-year-old man was also killed in Worth County Monday after climbing onto a shed as sustained winds in the area exceed 40pmh. The man’s wife called 911 saying he suffered a heart attack and first responders found his body lodged between two beams on the shed’s roof with debris on top of him.
Charles Saxon, 57, was cleaning limbs and debris outside his home in Calhoun Falls in South Carolina at about 3pm Monday when a limb fell on him. He died at the scene.
Irma crossed over into Georgia on Monday afternoon and was finally downgraded to a tropical storm after wreaking havoc on Florida. Above is severe flooding on Tybee Island in Georgia on Monday
Pedestrians try to walk as waves crash at The Battery as Tropical Storm Irma hits Charleston, South Carolina on Monday
The National Weather Service also issued a flash-flood emergency for Charleston (above) in South Carolina on Monday
Irma crossed over into Georgia on Monday afternoon and was finally downgraded to a tropical storm after wreaking havoc on Florida. The storm’s maximum sustained winds were down to 60 mph as the storm was about 50 miles south-southeast of Albany and moving at 17mph.
The situation is also dire in Charleston, South Carolina as officials declared a flash flood emergency.
The powerful hurricane made landfall Sunday morning in Florida Keys as a category 4 storm and then made it’s way up the Gulf Coast – knocking out power to some 7.2million people in the southeast, swamping downtown Miami with storm surge and blowing the roofs off homes.
More than 200,000 people waited in shelters across Florida as Irma headed up the coast.
Communities along the Georgia coast are now seeing extensive flooding from Tropical Storm Irma. Irma’s storm surge pushed water ashore at the high tide Monday afternoon, and heavy rainfall made the flooding even worse.
Northern Florida and southern Georgia should keep getting soaked, with rain totals eventually accumulating to eight to 15 inches. Isolated parts of central Georgia, eastern Alabama and southern South Carolina may get up to 10 inches of rain.
The storm is now believed to have caused 10 deaths in the US – including two in the Florida Keys, which was under mandatory evacuation during the storm.
Nearly 7.2 million homes and businesses across the southeast lost power, and utility officials said it will take weeks to restore electricity to everyone. More than 125,000 were in the dark in Georgia.
This satellite image shows Tropical Storm Irma as it moves up Florida’s West Coast Monday morning
Downtown Savannah was getting soaked Monday morning, with winds just strong enough to rustle treetops and shake small branches onto the roads. Impacts from the storm were expected throughout the day.
The National Weather Service said the threat of storm surge had decreased Monday along Georgia’s 100 miles of coast, but flooding rains could still cause swollen rivers, streams and creeks to overflow.
Officials say at least one tornado has been reported in coastal Georgia as strong winds and drenching rains from Tropical Storm Irma hammer the state.
The National Weather Service also issued a flash-flood emergency for Charleston, South Carolina as heavy rains begin to move into areas already flooding by ocean surge from Tropical Storm Irma.
Irma has now knocked out power to around 190,000 customers in South Carolina.
The monster storm, which arrived in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, has toppled at least three constructions cranes – two over downtown Miami and one in Fort Lauderdale.
The entirety of the Florida Keys was under evacuation during Irma but an estimated 10,000 stuck around to weather the storm
A person walks through the flooded streets of a trailer park in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma on Monday in Key Largo, Florida
A van remains in a sinkhole on Monday in Winter Springs, Florida after Hurricane Irma passed through the state
Tommy Nevitt carries Miranda Abbott, 6, through floodwater caused by Hurricane Irma on the west side of Jacksonville, Florida on Monday
Kelly McClenthen returns to see the flood damage to her home with her boyfriend Daniel Harrison in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in Bonita Springs, Fla., Monday, Sept. 11, 2017
Wrecked boats that have come ashore are pictured in Coconut Grove following Hurricane Irma in Miami, Florida, U.S., September 11, 2017
People in the heavily populated Tampa-St. Petersburg area had feared a first direct hit from a major hurricane since 1921, but the storm weakened to a Category 2 as it approached that area.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott says there’s damage across the state caused by Hurricane Irma and it’s still too dangerous for residents to go outside or return from evacuation.
While Irma has been downgraded to a tropical storm over Florida, it still has winds near hurricane force and that’s causing continued storm surge on the east coast.
In Jacksonville, authorities are telling residents near the St. Johns river to evacuate as floodwaters quickly rise.
The storm surge flooding in downtown Jacksonville has already exceeded a record set during a 1965 hurricane by at least a foot. A river gauge downtown in the Atlantic Coast city measured 3 feet above flood stage.