A hurricane-force wind gust was recorded in the Florida Keys late Saturday night -- the first sign of deadly Hurricane Irma's impending landfall on the U.S. mainland.

The weather service said the Smith Shoal Light station recorded a 74 mph wind gust on Saturday night, the Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, the center of Irma was headed toward the Keys with sustained winds of 120 mph.

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The edge of Hurricane Irma kicked up surf, whipped up palm trees and spun up at least one confirmed tornado as it approached landfall in Florida Saturday evening.

Irma had been downgraded to a Category 3 storm as it raked the coast of Cuba Saturday morning, but it was expected to get its strength back over the ultra-toasty Florida Straits and hit the peninsula Sunday morning as a dangerous Category 4 storm.

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"This is your last chance to make a good decision," Gov. Rick Scott warned residents in Florida's evacuation zones, which encompassed a staggering 6.4 million people, or more than 1 in 4 people in the state.

As of 2 a.m. ET Sunday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) placed Irma about 70 miles southeast of Key West with winds of up to 130 miles per hour. The center said the storm was moving west-northwest at 6 mph.

President Donald Trump tweeted about Irma shortly before 11 p.m. ET. "The U.S. Coast Guard, FEMA and all Federal and State brave people are ready. Here comes Irma. God bless everyone!," the president wrote.

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The National Weather Service in Miami posted on Twitter on Saturday evening that a tornado had touched the ground in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Oakland Park. It wasn't immediately clear how much damaged was caused.

Tornado warnings have been issued for Fort Lauderdale, Coral Springs, Pompano Beach and Sunrise in Broward County, as well as parts of nearby Palm Beach and Hendry Counties.

More than 75,000 people had lost power by Saturday evening, mostly in and around Miami and Fort Lauderdale, as the wind began gusting.

For days, the forecast had made it look as if the Miami metropolitan area of 6 million people on Florida's Atlantic coast could get hit head-on by the long-dreaded Big One.

But that soon changed. Meteorologists predicted Irma's center would blow ashore Sunday morning in the perilously low-lying Florida Keys, then hug the state's west coast, plowing into the Tampa Bay area by Monday morning.

Still, Miami was not out of danger. Because the storm is 350 to 400 miles wide, the metro area could still get life-threatening hurricane winds and dangerous storm surge of 4 to 6 feet, forecasters warned.

The new course threatens everything from Tampa Bay's bustling twin cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg to Naples' mansion- and yacht-lined canals, Sun City Center's retirement homes, and Sanibel Island's shell-filled beaches.

By late morning Saturday, however, few businesses in St. Petersburg and its barrier islands had put plywood or hurricane shutters on their windows, and some locals grumbled about the change in the forecast.

"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," said Jeff Beerbohm, a 52-year-old entrepreneur in St. Petersburg. "As usual, the weatherman, I don't know why they're paid."

With the new forecast, Pinellas County, home to St. Petersburg, ordered 260,000 people to leave, while Georgia scaled back evacuation orders for some coastal residents.

Tampa has not been struck by a major hurricane since 1921, when its population was about 10,000, National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said. Now the area has around 3 million people.

Nearly the entire Florida coastline remained under hurricane watches and warnings, and leery residents watched a projected track that could still shift to spare, or savage, parts of the state.

Forecasters warned of storm surge as high as 15 feet.

"This is going to sneak up on people," said Jamie Rhome, head of the hurricane center's storm surge unit.

About 70,000 people crowded into 385 shelters across Florida.

In Key West, 60-year-old Carol Walterson Stroud sought refuge in a senior center with her husband, granddaughter and dog. The streets were nearly empty, shops were boarded up and the wind started to blow.

"Tonight, I'm sweating," she said. "Tonight, I'm scared to death."

At Germain Arena not far from Fort Myers, on Florida's southwestern corner, thousands waited in a snaking line for hours to gain a spot in the hockey venue-turned-shelter.

"We'll never get in," Jamilla Bartley lamented as she stood in the parking lot.

The governor activated all 7,000 members of the Florida National Guard, and 30,000 guardsmen from elsewhere were on standby.

In the Orlando area, Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and Sea World all prepared to close Saturday. The Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando airports shut down, and the Tampa airport planned to do the same later in the day. The Sunshine Skyway Bridge spanning Tampa Bay was closed.

Given its mammoth size and strength and its projected course, it could prove one of the most devastating hurricanes ever to hit Florida and inflict damage on a scale not seen here in 25 years.

Hurricane Andrew razed Miami's suburbs in 1992 with winds topping 165 mph (265 kph), damaging or blowing apart over 125,000 homes. The damage in Florida totaled $26 billion, and at least 40 people died.

Boat captain Ray Scarborough and his girlfriend left their home in Big Pine Key and fled north to stay with relatives in Orlando. Scarborough was 12 when Andrew hit and remembers lying on the floor in a hall as the storm nearly ripped the roof off his house.

"They said this one is going to be bigger than Andrew. When they told me that," he said, "that's all I needed to hear."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

(foxnews.com)

MIAMI — The fierce winds of Hurricane Irma regained Category 4 strength early Sunday as the storm’s eye made it to the lower Florida Keys just before 9 a.m. The massive storm already has caused a million buildings to lose power across South Florida as its leading edge lashed several major population centers.

The National Weather Service said the storm made landfall at 9:10 a.m. on Cudjoe Key, with wind gusts reaching 130 mph. Forecasters warn that a second landfall could happen later on Sunday as Irma heads north to the U.S. mainland.

Officials said storm surges in the Keys could reach a devastating five to 10 feet there before the hurricane slowly proceeds up the state’s west coast.

“A very dangerous day is unfolding in the Florida Keys and much of West Florida,” Michael Brennan, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, said in an early morning update Sunday. “It certainly could inundate the entire island. That’s why everyone in the Keys was urged so strongly to evacuate.”

Due to the size of the hurricane, weather officials warn that Florida’s east coast — home to Miami and Fort Lauderdale — also remains in danger from winds and storm surges expected to easily overwhelm some areas. Officials fears the storm could ravage the state with destruction not seen in a generation.

Tati Roberts of Key West, Fla., retreats from the Higgs Beach pier on Saturday. Tropical-storm-force winds from Hurricane Irma began hitting the Lower Florida Keys around 2 p.m. with a forecast landfall Sunday morning as a Category 4 storm. (Rob O’Neal for The Washington Post )

More than 6 million residents were ordered evacuated from the area by Saturday evening, as Irma’s outer bands scraped Florida, forcing thousands to cram into shelters. Gov. Rick Scott (R) sounded dire warnings about the storm, urging residents in evacuation zones to leave their homes immediately.

“Once the storm starts, law enforcement cannot save you,” Scott said Saturday at a news conference in Sarasota.

While the National Hurricane Center had downgraded Irma to a Category 3 storm Saturday, the storm was upgraded again to Category 4 early Sunday. At 5 a.m., weather officials said the storm was plodding northwest at about 8 miles per hour, placing it on pace to reach Naples by about 5 p.m. The storm could potentially make a second landfall further north on Sunday.

“It could make landfall anywhere along the west coast,” Brennan said. “It’s really hard to predict where the eye will make landfall on the west coast once it leaves the keys.”

Regardless of its track, all of Florida will probably experience damaging winds, rains, flooding and possibly tornadoes. The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for all of southern Florida and the Florida Keys.

The National Weather Service said southwestern Florida could see storm surges up to 15 feet if peak surge happens during high tide. A storm surge warning is in effect for much of the Florida peninsula.

“This is a deadly storm and our state has never seen anything like it,” Scott said.

[Hurricane Irma is literally sucking the water away from shorelines]

Counties including Broward on the east coast have imposed curfews, and at least 70 more shelters were opening across the state Saturday. At least 50,000 people are staying in 260 state shelters, Scott said. He implored nurses to volunteer throughout Florida; the state desperately needs 1,000 nurses in its special-needs shelters.

By Saturday afternoon, storm conditions had swept into Miami, now a ghost metropolis. There was no traffic on typically jammed roads and highways. Almost all stores appeared to be closed. By midday, dozens of people crowded Vicky Bakery on Coral Way, the one place for miles that was open. In downtown Miami, cranes spun like toys. A wind gust of 70 mph was recorded at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Saturday afternoon.

At the Miami-Dade Emergency Operations Center, Fire Chief Dave Downey said that after the storm passes, his teams will deploy to the Florida Keys and to southwest Florida to assist with rescue efforts. The question, he said, “is how fast can we get into the Keys, how fast can we get into the west coast.” The likelihood that the storm will make a direct hit on the Keys, he said, “terrifies all of us.”

Emergency managers in Monroe County, which encompasses the Keys, were forced by the track of the storm to abandon their Emergency Operations Center in Marathon, in the Middle Keys, and relocate to relatively high ground in Key Largo, at the northern end of the island chain. Downey said he feared that the storm could knock out the Overseas Highway, which would hamper rescue efforts.

That would necessitate mobilizing by air and water. But he said his department’s helicopters had been moved ahead of the storm to Orlando, to keep them from being damaged.

He said he spoke Saturday to a counterpart in Marco Island, a small community south of Naples. “The people who haven’t evacuated, they know who they are and where they are.”

Downey described the triage of a first response — the fact that rescue teams will go looking for someone who has called 911 and then encounter five more people in need along the way.

“You hear the first person scream, you think that’s the worst. I’m more concerned about the people we haven’t heard from,” the chief said.

Hurricane Irma hammers Florida

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The storm hit Florida with 130 mph winds, striking the Florida Keys and Miami. It is moving up the state’s Gulf Coast toward the Tampa Bay area.

In Estero, on the west coast of Florida, thousands of people wrapped around the massive Germain Arena, which officials opened as a shelter Saturday and has a capacity of 7,000 to 8,000. At least six ambulances have responded to people who were overcome in the muggy, 90-degree heat. Troopers, the National Guard and local police sought out people in wheelchairs and moved them to the front of the line, said Lt. Greg Bueno, public information officer for the Florida Highway Patrol.

Leaning on a cane, Betty Sellers, 68, and her son, Doug, 49, got in line at 9:30 a.m. and were still 100 people away from the front doors. They had driven up to Estero from Naples, because “the shelters were mostly closed there,” she said.

Officials at the Collier County emergency operations center in Naples said 15,000 people have filled its shelters, but they are trying to expand space in each location to accommodate more. Demand exceeded expectations as the forecast showed the area probably taking the full force of Irma’s impact.

The county said it will be difficult for it to house everyone who needs or wants to evacuate to shelters and urged people who can find shelter with friends or family to go there. Lee County Manager Roger Desjarlais said Saturday afternoon that the county is sheltering 22,000 people. The two counties combined have a population of about 1 million.

Officials are also concerned that wind gusts will send water over the Herbert Hoover Dike that holds back Lake Okeechobee, which covers more than 700 square miles. Evacuations have been ordered for cities and towns on the south side of the lake in Hendry, Palm Beach and Glades counties.

The storm has already heavily damaged some Caribbean islands, killing at least 22 people. In St. Martin, 25 U.S. citizens were evacuated by a C-130 military aircraft Friday from Sonesta Great Bay Beach Resort. Resort officials said another evacuation is expected. Michael Joseph, president of the Red Cross in Antigua and Barbuda, said Barbuda is “uninhabitable” and in a “total blackout” with almost all of its infrastructure wiped out. A Marine expeditionary unit and a Navy dock landing ship arrived in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and patients in need of medical care were evacuated from St. Thomas.

For some families, the hurricane has affected loved ones in the Caribbean and now Florida.

Since early Wednesday, when Hurricane Irma tore across the Caribbean island of St. Martin, Gretchen and Peter Bogacz have been hunkered down at the Hotel L’Esplanade with no power or running water, trying to find out if assistance was on the way. But with the airport seriously damaged, there was no way out.

Meanwhile, Irma was headed toward their 12-year-old daughter, Isabella, as well as Peter Bogacz’s parents, who planned to ride out the storm together at home in Sarasota, Fla.

The situation is overwhelming for Gretchen’s sister, Natalie Grinnell, who is urgently monitoring the forecasts from her home in Spartanburg, S.C.

“My worry for my loved ones is pervasive,” she wrote in an email to The Washington Post.

[What you need to know about Hurricane Irma and its path]

In the United States, local, state and federal officials have offered ominous warnings as the storm zeroed in on Florida, making clear how much danger they felt the Sunshine State could face in coming days. William “Brock” Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, urged people from Alabama to North Carolina to monitor and prepare for the storm, calling it “a threat that is going to devastate the United States, either Florida or some of the Southeastern states.”

About 540,000 people in Georgia and 44,000 in South Carolina had also been ordered evacuated by Sunday evening. Airports throughout Florida and in Savannah, Ga., were closed. Disney World is closed Sunday and Monday, with resort hotels staying open.

At a shelter inside Pompano Beach High School, on the southeast coast of Florida, videos of Irma’s devastation in the Caribbean were constantly being aired on two big-screen TVs set up in the cafeteria, where 280 evacuees were sheltered in place on Saturday afternoon. They ate a lunch of sausage pizza, canned corn, applesauce and milk or juice. Mayor Mark Fisher stopped by to thank people for evacuating to the shelter.

Infants, parents and grandparents all crammed into an at-capacity emergency shelter at the Miami-Dade County Fair and Exposition. There were pets, cots, a few birds and wheelchairs — lots of wheelchairs. Two elderly people, one with diabetes already feeling fatigued, said they came with little food and no beds, so they’d be sleeping in their wheelchairs until the storm passes.It is one Must Readsof 20 set up by Broward County. Three of the shelters are pet-friendly, though not the one at the high school. Another is specifically for people with special medical needs.

Long had a blunt message for those in the Florida Keys: “You put your life in your own hands by not evacuating,” he said on CNN. But some locals refused to budge.

“It’s going to be a fun ride,” said Jason Wasser, who had a few drinks at Don’s Place. “All of our friends are here, our family, why bother leaving? We’re all going to die eventually, so why not have a good time with it?”

Achenbach and Stein reported from Miami, Lowery and Zezima from Washington. Patricia Sullivan in Estero, Scott Unger in Key West, Leonard Shapiro in Pompano Beach, Lori Rozsa in Gainesville and Rachelle Krygier in Caracas contributed to the report. Lori Aratani, Mark Berman, Thomas M. Gibbons-Neff, Matea Gold, Jason Samenow and Sarah Larimer in Washington contributed reporting.

(The Washington Post)