(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) WASHINGTON, Sept 11 (KUNA) -- Hurricane Irma weakened to a tropical storm Monday and is moving out of Florida towards Georgia and Alabama where the states are preparing for impact.
The storm still has maximum sustained winds of 65 miles per hour with even stronger wind gusts. At 11:00 a.m. local time the storm was about 110 kilometers east of Tallahassee.
Some 5.8 million people are without electricity in Florida, according to state officials. The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) estimated that some area of the state won't have electricity for week.
At least four deaths have been reported in Florida and at least 27 people are dead across the Caribbean. While the full extent of Irma's damage cannot yet be calculated, the storm weakened at a rate faster than expected.
Jacksonville, the state's largest city geographically, was significantly affected by the storm in which its Mayor Charlie Latham commented on CNN, "I've never seen anything like it," he said in regard to the flooding.
Meanwhile in Tampa, Mayor Bob Buckhorn who had previously warned that the city was going to get "punched in the face" said that it had been spared by Irma's worst.
In Miami, Mayor Tomas Regalado asked for residents to stay off the streets so that emergency teams could begin repairing broken power lines and start search and rescue efforts.
In the Florida Keys, Bill South of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told CNN, "There's no electricity throughout the Keys. No cell service in at least the lower and middle Keys." He added, "The only road that comes in and out of the Florida Keys, there's three choke points -- there are three places that are completely inaccessible." Looking ahead, Georgia has declared a state of emergency for all 159 counties. Atlanta, a city far inland, is under a tropical storm watch Monday and Tuesday.
In Alabama some schools in Birmingham, Huntsville and Auburn closed Monday and some have already announced closures for Tuesday. (end) ak.bs
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