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Hurricane Irma is 3,000 kilometres away, but repercussions from the immense Category 5 hurricane can still be felt in Ottawa.
“It’s the reason I’m not sleeping,” said Crystal Smalldon, an addictions counsellor whose boyfriend works in neurosurgery at a hospital in Orlando, a city bracing for the storm’s arrival on the weekend. Because he provides an essential service, Smalldon’s boyfriend isn’t allowed to leave to escape the approaching storm.
“Right now the path shows an Orlando hit with winds of 280 m.p.h. at 9 a.m. Sunday,” said Smalldon on Wednesday. “We’ve got sandbags at the house, but there’s no way to know. You prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”
Across Florida, preparations were underway for Irma’s “potentially catastrophic” arrival. It is the most powerful hurricane to threaten the Atlantic coast in more than a decade. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Wednesday that Irma’s “extremely dangerous core” was moving over the Leeward Islands before heading toward the Virgin Islands and passing “near or just north of Puerto Rico” later in the day.
Smalldon visits her boyfriend once a month at his home in central Florida and is getting updates from their Florida neighbours every few minutes in Ottawa.
“We’re directly in the middle of Central Florida. It’s 45 minutes to each coast. But the storm is so large it will cover the whole state. For the first time, being in Central Florida isn’t safe anymore.”
Another Ottawa resident, Marc Jacces, was bracing for the hurricane’s arrival in Haiti, where he was helping with relief work in a country still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Matthew a year ago and a deadly earthquake in 2010.
“The problem is we’re not really prepared for these kind of things,” Jacces said in a phone call from Port-au-Prince. “We are always really scared. It’s the way things are constructed and the way they build the city. That’s why we always have a lot of people die in all these situations.”
Jacces was stocking up on bottled water and flashlights and was ready to open his home as a shelter for those who needed it. The hurricane was expected to reach Haiti and the Dominican Republic Friday morning. Last October, Hurricane Matthew dumped 40 inches of rain in Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, killing 500 and leaving 180,000 homeless, according to the United Nations.
Irma made landfall in the Caribbean Leeward Islands Wednesday morning, lashing the small island nations with terrifying winds and rain. Global Affairs Canada was urging Canadians to avoid travel in the storm’s path, including Anguilla, St. Barts, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos and the Florida Keys.
Related
Montreal-based Air Transat said late Tuesday it was sending 10 aircraft to the Dominican Republic to bring travellers home — seven to Punta Cana, two to Puerto Plata and one to Samana. Air Canada said it was instituting a “good will policy” to let travellers affected by the hurricane change their flights without charge and has added extra flights and larger planes to the affected areas.
One Ottawa couple, Christine and Drew Doval, owners of Doval Automotive in Gloucester, rode out the storm in a hotel on the island of Nevis. In a Twitter message, Christine said the hurricane veered away at the last minute, sparing them the worst of the storm.
“We are fine,” she wrote Wednesday. “Irma churned drastically north so we didn’t get the core. We got the outer bands, maybe about 3/4 out, for 20 hours now. Our power is back. We got extremely lucky. I am a Canadian girl and this is my first hurricane. I can describe it exactly like a strong blizzard but with warm water instead of snow.”
Forecasters expect the storm to weaken in intensity as it moves westward, but warn the storm remains extremely dangerous. Though difficult to predict its track, analysts expect the core of Irma to pass right along or just offshore of Florida’s east coast on Saturday with the worst of the storm to hit Sunday.
A mandatory evacuation order is in place for the Florida Keys.
“I’m nervous. Like anyone else with a loved one in the way — especially someone who can’t leave,” said Smalldon. “I’m worried. I’m not worried for my house. It can be replaced. I’m worried for my loved one and my neighbours. And the worst thing is I can’t do anything from here.”
bcrawford@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/getBAC
— With files from The Associated Press
查看原文...
“It’s the reason I’m not sleeping,” said Crystal Smalldon, an addictions counsellor whose boyfriend works in neurosurgery at a hospital in Orlando, a city bracing for the storm’s arrival on the weekend. Because he provides an essential service, Smalldon’s boyfriend isn’t allowed to leave to escape the approaching storm.
“Right now the path shows an Orlando hit with winds of 280 m.p.h. at 9 a.m. Sunday,” said Smalldon on Wednesday. “We’ve got sandbags at the house, but there’s no way to know. You prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”
Across Florida, preparations were underway for Irma’s “potentially catastrophic” arrival. It is the most powerful hurricane to threaten the Atlantic coast in more than a decade. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Wednesday that Irma’s “extremely dangerous core” was moving over the Leeward Islands before heading toward the Virgin Islands and passing “near or just north of Puerto Rico” later in the day.
Smalldon visits her boyfriend once a month at his home in central Florida and is getting updates from their Florida neighbours every few minutes in Ottawa.
“We’re directly in the middle of Central Florida. It’s 45 minutes to each coast. But the storm is so large it will cover the whole state. For the first time, being in Central Florida isn’t safe anymore.”
Another Ottawa resident, Marc Jacces, was bracing for the hurricane’s arrival in Haiti, where he was helping with relief work in a country still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Matthew a year ago and a deadly earthquake in 2010.
“The problem is we’re not really prepared for these kind of things,” Jacces said in a phone call from Port-au-Prince. “We are always really scared. It’s the way things are constructed and the way they build the city. That’s why we always have a lot of people die in all these situations.”
Jacces was stocking up on bottled water and flashlights and was ready to open his home as a shelter for those who needed it. The hurricane was expected to reach Haiti and the Dominican Republic Friday morning. Last October, Hurricane Matthew dumped 40 inches of rain in Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, killing 500 and leaving 180,000 homeless, according to the United Nations.
Irma made landfall in the Caribbean Leeward Islands Wednesday morning, lashing the small island nations with terrifying winds and rain. Global Affairs Canada was urging Canadians to avoid travel in the storm’s path, including Anguilla, St. Barts, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos and the Florida Keys.
Related
- Global Affairs Canada Travel Advisories
- Air Canada Hurricane Irma update
- LIVE: Watch as Hurricane Irma batters the Caribbean
Montreal-based Air Transat said late Tuesday it was sending 10 aircraft to the Dominican Republic to bring travellers home — seven to Punta Cana, two to Puerto Plata and one to Samana. Air Canada said it was instituting a “good will policy” to let travellers affected by the hurricane change their flights without charge and has added extra flights and larger planes to the affected areas.
One Ottawa couple, Christine and Drew Doval, owners of Doval Automotive in Gloucester, rode out the storm in a hotel on the island of Nevis. In a Twitter message, Christine said the hurricane veered away at the last minute, sparing them the worst of the storm.
“We are fine,” she wrote Wednesday. “Irma churned drastically north so we didn’t get the core. We got the outer bands, maybe about 3/4 out, for 20 hours now. Our power is back. We got extremely lucky. I am a Canadian girl and this is my first hurricane. I can describe it exactly like a strong blizzard but with warm water instead of snow.”
Forecasters expect the storm to weaken in intensity as it moves westward, but warn the storm remains extremely dangerous. Though difficult to predict its track, analysts expect the core of Irma to pass right along or just offshore of Florida’s east coast on Saturday with the worst of the storm to hit Sunday.
A mandatory evacuation order is in place for the Florida Keys.
“I’m nervous. Like anyone else with a loved one in the way — especially someone who can’t leave,” said Smalldon. “I’m worried. I’m not worried for my house. It can be replaced. I’m worried for my loved one and my neighbours. And the worst thing is I can’t do anything from here.”
bcrawford@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/getBAC
— With files from The Associated Press
查看原文...
