Staff at Ernest Hemingway's home in Florida have vowed to ride out Hurricane Irma, in the hope of safeguarding the property and its famous six-toed cats.

The 19th Century Hemingway Home Museum in Key West has been boarded up and employees are hunkering down, with the storm heading straight for them.

But 10 staff members including 72-year-old manager Jacqui Sands are staying behind to look after home and its dozens of polydactyly (CORR) felines, which are all descendants of the late author's own cats.