Historic Hurricane Irma cut power to 20 million people
Hurricane Irma is winding down today after thrashing the Caribbean and Florida. It's been a wild two weeks for us all. Here are some statistics. I'll add to this in the upcoming days.
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Nearly 8 million customers (~20 million people) lost power, the largest U.S. outage ever*
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Of those, 6,500,000 customers (16 million people) were in Florida -- 75% of the state, according to the Washington Post
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Over 7 million people were evacuated, the largest evacuation in U.S. history (Axios)
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Over 50 people are dead (8 U.S., 10 Cuba, 38 Caribbean)
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Untold numbers of people are without cellphone service -- many cell phone towers were downed
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Winds gusted up to 142 mph in the U.S. and 153 mph in the Caribbean (see list below)
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Rainfall totaled up to 15.91 inches at Fort Pierce, Florida
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Irma set dozens of hurricane records, including most powerful Atlantic hurricane (tied #2 for highest winds)
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On the heels of Hurricane Harvey, the two are the first Category 4 storms to hit the U.S. in one year in over 100 years
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There may be 10,000 missing people in the Florida Keys who rode out the storm and need evacuation (AccuWeather.com)
The storm is moving North, slamming in to northern Florida and Georgia as a tropical storm.
