A Wind-Blasted, Watery Hell

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Miami Beach

"It's like  hell in there and people keep coming."
"At home, at least I won't go out of my mind sitting up in those bleachers."
Eileen Jirak, 83, Key West, Florida

"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. Well, we're about to get punched in the face."
"We are about to find out what hell looks like."
Mayor Bob Buckhorn, Tampa, Florida

"We're 30 plus feet above sea level and in a place that's built to withstand 225 mph winds."
"That's a better chance than being exposed out on the highway in traffic trying to make it to Georgia."
Jason Jonas, Key West

Florida is a favourite destination and home for retired people, not just Americans, but Canadians as well. An estimated 500,000 Canadians own vacation-retirement homes in Florida. A very small proportion of those Canadians living in Florida have called upon the Canadian Embassy for aid in escaping the fearsome hurricane given that arch name of Irma.  The state is the retirement capital of the United States, with over 1.5 million people living there who are over the age of 75, half of them disabled, many physically incapable of evacuation.

In Estero, a sports arena had been turned into a shelter, estimated to be able to hold up to five thousand people to shelter them from the hurricane's effects. Jack Shively, 85, and his 78-year-old wife, along with their dog Chrissy, had been turned away from three shelters that were full, so they ended up at the sports arena. His wife commented "I don't think I can sit here all night (in the bleachers), but I guess I'll have to." Eileen Jirak, fed up with the safe accommodation, prepared to leave the shelter for home, dire warnings aside.

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North Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard

"This is a disaster. I'll never do this again. I'd rather drown", added 74-year-old Eileen Car, another senior finding the safe accommodation more uncomfortable than the prospect of dying. Perhaps they should take comfort from their president's concern for them, leading him to pray on their account: "Brave people are ready. Here comes Irma. God bless everyone!", he tweeted from Camp David, of "a storm of enormous destructive power".

Over a quarter of the state's population urged to evacuate resulted in over six million people doing their best to do just that. People living on the west coast of the state felt rather disgruntled given the fact that Irma was presumed by weather forecasters to be heading for the east coast: "As usual the weathermen, I don't know why they're paid. For five days, we were told it was going to be on the east coast, and then 24 hours before it hits, we're now told it's coming up the west coast."

Tampa's population of three million, its abundance of retirement homes, its yacht-lined canals and lovely white-sand beaches all under threat. Its mayor musing about living hell, eroding any possible confidence its residents may be nursing that they'll get through this weather tantrum threatening their security and safety, let alone everything they've ever owned and taken pride in. Everyone focuses on their cellphones for the latest warnings from the National Weather Center.