Huricane Irma took on the entirety of Florida two years ago

   Hurricane Irma was Florida’s wake-up call. The state had not had experienced such a tropical menace in more than 10 years. But on Sept. 10, 2017, Hurricane Irma brought its Category 4 strength winds to Florida as an equal opportunity disaster, causing death and destruction across the entire state. Images of Irma’s wrath from the Florida Keys to Naples to Orlando to Jacksonville had people calling it Irmageddon. It was the first hurricane to strike the state since 2005′s Hurricane Wilma, and the strongest since Hurricane Charley in 2004. The deadly storm had already done extensive damage to the Caribbean and had grown into a Category 5 hurricane with 180 mph winds striking Barbuda, St. Martin, the British Virgin Islands, and Cuba, while also causing damage on other Caribbean islands. 

   It made landfall in Florida on Cudjoe Key between Key West and Marathon with 130 mph winds on that Sunday morning, and then made a second landfall later that day across Marco Island before heading up through the peninsula lashing the entire state with hurricane-strength winds, spawning tornadoes and dousing the state with massive rainfall. The storm caused the state’s largest evacuation ever as 7 million residents fled the hurricane. It caused 6.7 million customers to lose power. The hurricane is blamed for 123 deaths in Florida, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with another six in Georgia and North Carolina and several more in the Caribbean. Florida had not received such a pounding since the four hurricanes - Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne - throttled the state in 2004. 

   In the end it left its mark across the entire state including, particularly in the Florida Keys, which is still dealing with storm damage two years later. Hurricane Irma was a reminder to Florida of just what a hurricane can do to the state, and why officials and residents take seriously threats like Hurricane Dorian and the rest of the possible tropical storms that could form in what is now the peak of hurricane season.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/weather/hurricane/os-ne-hurricane-irma-covers-florida-on-this-day-20190910-g5aldl5hq5cr3gpmnp3bqk44qm-story.html