First it was Houston, and now Florida has fallen victim to a raging Caribbean hurricane, the first time in modern-day American history that two Category 4 hurricanes have made landfall in the same year.

It has taken nearly a week for Miss Irma to make landfall in the Florida Keys, eventually reaching the string of islands at 9:10AM on Sunday morning as a 210 km/h Category 4 storm, reports The Daily Beast:

Winds at the National Weather Service office in Key West frequently approached 100 mph as meteorologists braced themselves inside their fortified office, providing updates on the storm.

“THIS IS AS REAL AS IT GETS,” one of them wrote in a tweet.

Later in the day, Irma’s core of winds and storm surge moved up the state’s west coast, maintaining Category 2 strength. Irma is taking a track just in-land, which caused it to weaken a bit quicker than forecasters expected.

But while Irma has weakened, widespread destruction remains:

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/907098407151513601

Below, a flock of flamingos was herded to safety as Irma approached. They stand on straw bedding in a secure room after they were at Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay:

On a lighter note, Etienne Nortjie, a South African expat in Tampa Florida brought a little homeland humour with his messages to Irma, reports SA People:

Here’s a live view of Hurricane Irma:

[source:thedailybeast&sapeople]