Hurricane Irma Florida

Hurricane Irma menaces Bahamas and Cuba, on course toward Florida

Hurricane Irma menaced Cuba and the Bahamas on Friday as it drove toward Florida after lashing the Caribbean with devastating winds and torrential rain, killing 19 people and leaving a swathe of catastrophic destruction.

Florida Governor Rick Scott issued a stark warning to residents to get out if they were in evacuation zones. Irma is one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century.

“We are running out of time. If you are in an evacuation zone, you need to go now. This is a catastrophic storm like our state has never seen,” Scott told reporters, adding the storm . . .