(Sept 9): Irma began to lash southern Florida with hurricane-force winds as the huge storm strengthened, threatening severe damage in Tampa and other cities facing the Gulf of Mexico in what could end up being the most expensive storm in US history.

With maximum sustained winds of 130 miles (209 kilometers) an hour, Irma was expected to strike the lower Florida Keys within hours and then move near or over the southwestern coast of the Florida Peninsula later in the day and into the evening, the US National Hurricane Center said in an early-morning advisory. Irma’s northern eyewall reached the lower Keys, the NHC said in a 7 am update, after it again strengthened to a Category 4 storm having swiped at Cuba.

President Donald Trump discussed round-the-clock preparations now under way with his Cabinet, calling Irma “a storm of enormous destructive power.”

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