Dramatic videos have emerged of the devastating impact being wrought in Florida by Hurricane Irma as it flooded streets and knocked out power to millions of homes and businesses.
The storm made landfall in the US on Cudjoe Key, in Monroe County, just after 9 am on Sunday with all of southern Florida feeling the effects of the storm creeping toward the shore.
At least three people are reported dead, a woman was forced to deliver her own baby, apartment towers swayed in high winds and trees were uprooted.
These are some of the videos emerging from of the storm at its most intense and rising floodwaters.
Naples, Florida:
Downtown Miami:
Florida Keys:
At its peak, the National Hurricane Center said the storm had maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour.
Irma, one of the most powerful hurricanes ever seen in the Atlantic, has already killed 28 people in the Caribbean.
Some 6.5 million people, about a third of the state’s population, had been ordered to evacuate southern Florida.
“This is a life-threatening situation,” Governor Rick Scott told a press conference.