Flooding in Miami
Flooding in MiamiREUTERS

Roughly half of Florida’s 20 million residents were without electricity as Hurricane Irma ripped across the state Sunday night and early Monday morning, ravaging Miami before turning west and hitting Naples and the Tampa-St. Petersburg area on the state’s west coast.

Irma, which had originally been classified as a Category 5 hurricane was downgraded repeatedly, before regaining strength and being upgraded to a Category 4 as it made landfall in south Florida – only to be downgraded again as it reached the Tampa Bay Area.

By Sunday night, Hurricane Irma was downgraded to a Category 2 – still dangerous and capable of devastating the Tampa metropolitan area with flooding and 100 miles per hour winds.

Meteorologists say the storm will continue northward, hitting Tallahassee in the Florida panhandle before cutting sharply to the west, affecting western Georgia, Alabama, and parts of southern Tennessee.