Irma Weakens To a Tropical Storm after Destroying Florida

Irma weakened Monday to a tropical storm, losing some of its punch but still packing powerful winds that stretched from central Florida to North Carolina. The remnants of Hurricane Irma swept north through Florida on Monday, leaving behind a trail of debris, flooding and power outages after the storm roared up the state’s Gulf Coast and brought its drenching rainfall and battering winds into Georgia.

As the storm roared through Florida, thrashing winds tore down trees and power lines alike, and by Monday afternoon officials said the storm appears to have cut power to a majority of the state’s 20.6 million residents.

Even as millions waited to see when power companies could navigate debris-strewn roads and restore their access to electricity — and with it, things such as air conditioning and refrigeration — Irma surged ever onward, sweeping rain bands through Florida’s core and threatening a dangerous storm surge in the populous Tampa Bay area and along the Gulf Coast.

The storm had spent the weekend hammering South Florida with rain and the wind before it made landfall twice on Sunday — first in the Florida Keys, then on Marco Island along the state’s southwestern coast — as it lumbered northward. Irma’s fury tore apart homes, flooded the Keys, swelled rivers to dangerous levels and, even as it weakened to a Category 1 hurricane and then a tropical storm on Monday, it was far from through.

One positive forecast for Florida: The rain threat had diminished for most of Florida by Monday, save the northernmost portions, with scattered showers expected during the day, according to the National Hurricane Center.

In Atlanta, Delta Air Lines canceled about 800 flights from its hub operations Monday in anticipation of strong crosswinds, which could reverberate through the air travel system nationwide. Thousands of flights have already been halted due to the storm. Atlanta, hundreds of miles from any coast, and more than 600 miles north of the place where Irma first hit the mainland was placed under its first tropical-storm warning.