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As nightfall approached Tuesday, many people from South Carolina to Florida were staying in darkened homes, dealing with fallen trees and blocked roadways, and hoping they could find gas. The situation in the Sunshine State was trying the patience of people who rode out the storm and those who came home after evacuating Hurricane Irma's path to find widespread devastation and access to their neighborhoods limited at times.
Last year was the Earth's warmest recorded year, the third year in a row to set a new record for global average temperatures. Rising temperatures are likely to increase the intensity and impact of major storms, scientists say, yet in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the Trump administration has resisted talking about climate change at all.
Initial estimates indicate 25% of the houses in the Florida Keys have been destroyed, and 65% have major damage, said Brock Long, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's administrator. "Basically, every house in the Keys was impacted some way," Long said Tuesday.
Florida allowed some residents to return on Tuesday to areas hammered by Hurricane Irma's high winds and storm surge, while the death toll rose in the second major hurricane to hit the United States this year. Irma, which had rampaged through the Caribbean as one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record, was downgraded to a tropical depression on Monday.
September is National Preparedness Month, the annual preparedness outreach event sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Ready Campaign.
FEMA has delivered 2.4 million meals and nearly 1.5 million liters of water to Florida since Hurricane Irma. The agency is making similar preparations in Alabama and Georgia, which are also in Irma's path.
SEPTEMBER 06: Debris is seen during a storm surge near the Puerto Chico Harbor during the passing of Hurricane Irma on September 6, 2017 in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. The category 5 storm is expected to pass over Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands today, and make landfall in Florida by the weekend.
President Donald Trump said Sunday that "we may have been a little bit lucky" after Hurricane Irma veered from its original course and headed along Florida's west coast, instead of east. He said that path might be less destructive.
Christian non-profit organizations have outdone FEMA and provided the vast majority of the relief aid to victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Faith-based relief groups are responsible for providing nearly 80 percent of the aid delivered thus far to communities with homes devastated by the recent hurricanes, according to USA Today .
In a 2017 hurricane season that has already seen two monster storms, Harvey and Irma, manufactured homes are turning out to be just a small fraction of the federal government's plan to deal with displaced people, with only 1,700 trailers available.
You can find photos, videos and other articles about one of the strongest hurricanes ever seen in the Atlantic in our Hurricane Irma page . Hurricane Irma hit the Florida Keys this morning.
Hurricane Irma made landfall at 9:10 a.m. ET at Cudjoe Key, Florida, as a Category 4 storm packing maximum sustained winds of 130 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. The eye of Hurricane Irma slammed into the Florida Keys as the calamitous storm snapped palm trees and threatened to devastate much of the state.
The new path forged by Hurricane Irma posed a severe threat to Florida's west coast and the Florida Keys, the head of the U.S. federal emergency agency said on Sunday, and the storm was bringing tornado watches and warnings around the state. "This is a worst case scenario for Monroe County, the Florida Keys and the west coast of Florida," Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told the "Fox News Sunday" programme.
After several days of prep, federal emergency officials on this Sunday must now wait to see just how much damage Hurricane Irma does to Florida, as for the second time in the last few weeks, a strong tropical system could set the stage for billions of dollars in federal disaster relief needs. "My administration is monitoring Hurricane Irma around the clock," the President said in a Saturday tweet.
President Donald Trump stepped into a hot church-state dispute Friday night, tweeting support for Texas churches that were damaged by Hurricane Harvey and now want assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to rebuild. Trump's tweet came after three Texas churches filed a lawsuit last week challenging a policy from FEMA that excludes houses of worship from disaster relief grants, and as Hurricane Irma barreled toward the southeastern United States.
A Phoenix search-and-rescue team and Arizona Red Cross volunteers are among those heading to Florida ahead of Hurricane Irma. Arizona rescue team in Orlando, awaiting orders as Hurricane Irma makes landfall A Phoenix search-and-rescue team and Arizona Red Cross volunteers are among those heading to Florida ahead of Hurricane Irma.
Texas health officials say the Federal Emergency Management Agency will use military planes to spray chemicals near Houston to help control disease-carrying mosquitoes following Hurricane Harvey. Texas Health and Human Services spokesman Chris Van Deusen says spraying begins Saturday evening east of Houston, in Jefferson, Orange and Chambers counties.
As Hurricane Irma bears down on Florida's southern coast, the nation's emergency management chief is warning that 'millions' of residents could be without power, in some instances for weeks. "We could see millions of people without power in Florida for multiple days in some areas, maybe weeks, and so I think it's very important to set the expectations of citizens," Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Brock Long told CNN's Rene Marsh at his agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C., Saturday.
From left background, Army National Guard Maj. Gen. Glen Curtis, DCFS Secretary Marketa Garner Walters and FEMA's Bill Doran watch as Gov. John Bel Edwards answers questions at a press conference on the storm.