Hurricane warnings have been issued for South Florida and the Keys.
Forecasters last night issued a warning for a sizeable segment of Florida, including the Miami metro area and Lake Okeechobee, as Category 5 hurricane Irma tracks toward the state with 270-kilometre-per-hour winds.
Meantime, Hurricane Irma battered the Turks and Caicos Islands early today.
The extent of the devastation is unclear as communications went down as the storm slammed into the islands.