Hurricane Irma Landfall Imminent
Category 4 Hurricane Irma's landfall in the Florida Keys is imminent.
Sunday, 10 September 2017 07:00:00 -05:00
Hurricane Irma, now a Category 4 storm, is about to make landfall in the Florida Keys. The storm took its time overnight lingering off the coast of Cuba but finally began a northwest movement which is expected to turn further north later today bringing it parallel to the western edge of the Florida coastline. The National Hurricane Center says the storm is expected to increase in forward speed later today as it turns north northwest.
With sustained winds of 130 MPH, heavy wind damage is expected. Wind hazards from Irma are also expected to spread northward through much of Georgia and portions of South Carolina and Alabama. While the National Hurricane Center forecasts some weakening of the storm later today, it cautions that Irma will still be a major hurricane event for Floridians.
Storm surge watches and warnings have been issued for the Florida coast and as far north as the central coast of South Carolina. The threat of catastrophic storm surge flooding is highest along the southwest coast of Florida, where 10 to 15 feet of inundation above ground level is expected.
The ContactRelief Disaster Decision Team is monitoring power outages on a county by county basis. They reported that at 4 AM over 285,000 homes were without power. The full effects of the storm are still hours away with the National Hurricane Center saying in its latest advisory that "Irma is expected to produce very heavy rain and inland flooding".
ContactRelief's On-going Response to Hurricane Irma
ContactRelief has issued recommendations for contact centers to shape their outbound contact away from the Hurricane Irma impact zone. For more information, see our current publicly available recommendations for Hurricane Irma.
For a limited time, ContactRelief is providing our full recommendations without charge as a service to the business community. Our full recommendations consist of the areas to be suspended and the list of zip codes covering these areas. Contact sales@contactrelief.com for more information.
