Hurricane Irma Unleashes Fury on Insurance Stocks

“Irma is only one of five known hurricanes during the satellite era to have reached sustained winds of 185 miles per hour or higher”, said AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski.

The department officials said they have authorized the voluntary departure of US government employees and their family members from the three countries because of the hurricane.

Hurricane Irma was already hammering Puerto Rico on Wednesday afternoon, even as its powerful eye was still 90 miles east over the Virgin Islands. Current forecasts show Jose’s center staying generally north and northeast of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republican, but that might change as the storm develops.

The right side of the storm is worse due to the direction of hurricane winds, according to NOAA.

The Sarasota-Manatee area is forecast to receive 3 inches of rain between Saturday and Tuesday, but if the track shifts west toward the Gulf Coast, that could bring increased rain to the area. Coastal residents should start packing a safety kit and developing a hurricane preparedness plan.

Florida coach Jim McElwain on Wednesday said school and athletic department officials have been monitoring the storm since Monday.

Antigua airport will be closed on Wednesday and San Juan airport, the busiest in Puerto Rico, has cancelled about 40% of its flights in response to the hurricane. Mandatory evacuations for visitors begins this morning, while evacuations for residents will take place this evening.

It’s too early to predict precise impacts or timing, but odds that Irma turns out to sea without impacting the US appear to be shrinking.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from at-risk areas across the Caribbean. The Macon-Bibb Emergency Management Agency will make decisions on opening shelters later this week.

Jose is expected to reach hurricane strength later in the day, the NHC said. It has maximum sustained winds of 185 miles per hour and is moving west-northwest at 16 miles per hour.

As the storm continues to travel through the Atlantic, the first to feel the storm’s wrath have been tiny Caribbean islands and the northern Leeward Islands. But uncertainty in predicting a hurricane’s movements that far in advance leaves the potential for it to shift, with eastward movement putting the Bahamas more at risk, while a more westward track would shift the risk of landfall from south Florida to the state’s panhandle. It is now headed west.