CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti (Reuters) — Haitians in the northern part of the country dealt with wind and rain on Thursday (September 7) as Hurricane Irma lashed the island of Hispaniola.
In the city of Cap-Haitien, many people were on the street and in markets making final preparations as the rain began to fall and wind picked up.
Fishermen tried to organize their boats and equipment but one fisherman, Rochenel, said they were not prepared for Irma’s wrath.
Meanwhile, residents of the Turks and Caicos Islands hunkered down for Hurricane Irma, which has smashed through a string of Caribbean islands as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century, killing at least 14 people en route to Florida.
With winds of around 185 miles per hour (290 km per hour), the storm the size of France has ravaged small islands in the northeast Caribbean in recent days, including Barbuda, Saint Martin and the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, ripping down trees and flattening homes and hospitals.
Winds dipped on Thursday to 175 mph as the Irma soaked the northern coasts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti and brought hurricane-force wind to the Turks and Caicos Islands. It remained an extremely dangerous Category 5 storm, the highest designation by the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Irma was about 40 miles (65 km) south of Turks and Caicos and is expected to reach the Bahamas later Thursday, before moving to Cuba and plowing into southern Florida as a very powerful Category 4 on Sunday, with storm surges and flooding due to begin within the next 48 hours
