Boarding up: A local business in the US state Georgia prepares for possible impact of Hurricane Irma. Credit:AP It's feared Irma, which is being considered a bigger menace to power supplies in Florida than Hurricane Harvey was in Texas, will down power lines, close nuclear plants and leave millions of homes and businesses in the dark for weeks. Electricity generator Florida Power & Light plans to shut its two nuclear power plants in the state, and officials warned that it may have to rebuild parts of the system, which could take weeks. Irma's winds rival the strongest for any hurricane in history in the Atlantic, whereas Harvey's damage came from record rainfall. "When Harvey made landfall in Texas it made it fully inland and weakened pretty quickly. Irma, however, could retain much of its strength," said Jason Setree, a meteorologist at Commodity Weather Group.

In the path of the hurricane: US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Credit:AP Current forecasts put almost the entirety of the Florida peninsula in the path of the storm, which made landfall in the Caribbean with wind speeds of 185 mph (295 km/h). The eye of Hurricane Irma grazed the Turks and Caicos Islands on Thursday, rattling buildings after it smashed a string of Caribbean islands, killing 14 people. Storm damage in St Maarten caused by Irma. Credit:AP The storm the size of France has ravaged Barbuda, Saint Martin and the British and US Virgin Islands, ripping down trees and flattening homes and hospitals.

Winds dipped on Thursday to 165 mph as Irma soaked the northern coasts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti and brought hurricane-force winds to the Turks and Caicos Islands. It remained an extremely dangerous Category 5, the highest designation by the National Hurricane Centre. Storm damage in St. Maarten after Irma came through. Credit:AP It was the first time the Turks and Caicos islands had experienced a Category 5 storm, said Virginia Clerveaux, director of Disaster Management and Emergencies. "We are expecting inundation from both rainfall as well as storm surge. And we may not be able to come rescue them in a timely manner," she said in comments on Facebook. Following in Irma's wake is more bad news: another major hurricane, Jose, now a Category 3 story, is due to hit the northeastern Caribbean on Saturday, local time.

In Miami, hundreds lined up for bottled water, and cars looped around city blocks to get petrol in panicked preparations for Irma's arrival. Petrol shortages in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area worsened on Thursday, with sales up to five times the norm. "To the people of Florida, we just want you to protect yourselves, be very, very vigilant and careful," said president Donald Trump. Four people died in the US Virgin islands, one in Barbuda, which was reduced "to rubble", according to Prime Minister Gaston Browne. One person was killed in the British overseas territory of Anguilla. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said four bodies were recovered on the tiny French-Dutch island of Saint Martin, which was hit hard. "It is an enormous disaster. Ninety-five percent of the island is destroyed. I am in shock," Daniel Gibbs, chairman of a local council on Saint Martin, told Radio Caribbean International. Television footage from the island showed a damaged marina with boats tossed into piles, submerged streets and flooded homes. French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday to coordinate an emergency humanitarian response.

Three people were killed in Puerto Rico and around two-thirds of the population lost electricity, Governor Ricardo Rossello said after the storm rolled by the U.S. territory's northern coast. A surfer was also reported killed in Barbados. Cuba started evacuating some of the 51,000 tourists visiting the island, particularly 36,000 people at resorts on the picturesque northern coast. That included all Canadian tourists, who Cuban Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero estimated made up 60 percent of foreign visitors in the country's keys. Irma was the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean and one of the five most forceful storms to hit the Atlantic basin in 82 years, according to the NHC. The storm activity comes after Harvey claimed about 60 lives and caused property damage estimated to be as much as $180 billion in Texas and Louisiana. At the same time as Irma heads towards Florida, and Hurricane Jose reached major hurricane status, another hurricane, Katia is threatening to barrel into Mexico.

On Friday Australian time, Jose had built to have maximum sustained winds of 190km/h, making it a Category 3 storm. More hurricane warnings were issued from Cabo Rojo to Laguna Verde in Mexico as Hurricane Katia takes aim on the nation's east coast. Rainfall from Katia could "cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, especially in areas of mountainous terrain," the hurricane centre warned. Loading This is the first time in seven years that three hurricanes have spun in the Atlantic Basin at the same time, according to Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach. Bloomberg, Reuters, Agencies