Hurricane Irma has come and gone from southern Florida and has been downgraded to a tropical storm as it reaches the northern part of the state and Leon County. After making landfall early Sunday morning in the Florida Keys area as a Category 4 storm with winds reaching 130 mph, Irma has continued on its path, moving northward and dissipating in strength. Though it’s still bringing damaging winds and rain with the potential to cause flooding in much of northern Florida.
So far, at least five people have been killed as a result of the storm and almost 6 million Floridians have been left without electricity.
The National Weather Service in Tallahassee said hurricane-force winds could still be felt in Leon County on Monday morning, but they would decrease in strength beginning in the afternoon. Winds measured at around 45 mph with gusts approaching 60 mph as a tropical storm warning remains in effect for Tallahassee, Woodville and Bradfordville until Tuesday morning. Multiple trees and power lines have been reported down throughout Leon County, and emergency crews are on the scene to assess the damage.
About 43,000 energy customers were without power in the city as of 1:30 p.m., according to the city’s outage map. Irma is expected to bring rainfall between 3-5 inches to the Tallahassee area.
The damage assessments across the state come after one of the biggest evacuations in United States history, with nearly 5 million people being under evacuation orders. On September 4, Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for Florida to give counties an appropriate amount of time to prepare for Irma. Those continued warnings throughout the week appeared to work, as many cities appeared as if they were ghost towns as Irma made landfall.
While Leon County didn’t receive mandatory evacuation orders, officials did declare a voluntary evacuation for residents on Saturday.
A countywide curefew remains in effect for all county residents and visitors. The curfew goes from 9 p.m. Monday until 7 a.m. Tuesday and the same thing will be in effect from Tuesday evening through Wednesday morning.
Here are some photos and videos from the Leon County and Tallahassee areas during the storm, as well as some showing the early damage caused by it: