John Bacon, Doyle Rice and Alan Gomez

USA TODAY

MIAMI — Hurricane Irma marched relentlessly up Florida's Gulf coast Sunday after slamming through the Florida Keys, as the meteorological behemoth's slashing rain and roaring winds rolled toward Georgia and beyond.

The storm made landfall on the Florida Keys and later near Naples, but Florida's eastern coast was far from spared Sunday from the almost 400-mile-wide storm. In Miami, high winds snapped construction cranes and water swept down streets like rivers. In Palm Bay, 175 miles to the north, a tornado destroyed six mobile homes. Water rose by 4 feet in 30 minutes in some places.

In Miami-Dade County, about 850,000 homes were without power, prompting Mayor Carlos Gimenez to impose a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew. Looters proved to be a problem too, with thousands of businesses and homes empty due to evacuations.

"We're going to be monitoring any types of crimes," Miami Police Commander Freddie Cruz told USA TODAY.

Millions of Floridians evacuated ahead of the historic storm, and more than 3.4 million power customers — about 7 million people — were without electricity Sunday.

"We're going to get through this," Gov. Rick Scott told workers in the state Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee. "We've got a lot of work to do," he added.

Scott visited Pensacola on Sunday to check on evacuees and get updates from officials. Volunteers in the shelters will be a growing need, he said.

"People are going to be in our shelters for awhile," Scott said.

Despite a 10-mile east shift Sunday afternoon Hurricane Irma still was poised to travel north and strike Tampa as a weaker storm before daybreak Monday, the National Hurricane Center said.

By 11 p.m. ET, Irma's winds had slowed somewhat to maximum sustained speed of 100 mph, but continued to barrel north at 14 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. At 11 p.m. ET, the storm was 50 miles southeast of Tampa.

Irma was forecast to continue traveling toward the Big Bend area in the Panhandle and strike Tampa as a Category 1 or 2 early Monday. It will be a tropical storm or Category 1 when it reaches the Tallahassee area.

The storm sent 120 mph winds to the Naples area after making landfall on Marco Island Sunday afternoon.

The east shift didn't change conditions for Central Florida and the east coast, Hurricane Center acting Director Ed Rappaport said. Those areas expected at least tropical storm conditions, stronger gusts and tornadoes.

Even as Irma wound down, the storm was creating complications in the Naples area. Irma blew the roof off of the fire station at Naples Municipal Airport, where the National Hurricane Center logged a wind gust of 142 mph, according to a 6 p.m. ET update Sunday. Emergency crews in Naples were working with the help of backup generators good for up to four days and able to be refueled. In Collier County, residents were asked to boil water before drinking or cooking until further notice.

In Venice, north of Naples, Irma was preventing utility workers from repairing a significant water main break, forcing the city's Utilities Department to shut down the water system. The development meant residents would have no water for the time being for drinking or flushing toilets.

The storm claimed at least three lives in Florida. A Hardee County sheriff's deputy and a prison employee died in a vehicle crash related to Irma on Sunday, officials said. Deputy Julie Bridges was on her way to pick up shelter supplies when the vehicle she was driving collided with another vehicle carrying Sgt. Joseph Ossman, who was reporting for work at the Hardee Correctional Institution.

One person died in a single vehicle accident off of a highway in Orange County, Fla., Sunday evening, county Fire Chief Otto Drozd said. "This underscores just how dangerous the roads are because it was just a single vehicle," Drozd told reporters.

President Trump approved a disaster declaration on Sunday for Florida, the White House announced Sunday. The declaration makes federal aid available for several counties affected by the storm, including Miami-Dade.

The president told reporters outside of the White House on Sunday that he will visit Florida "very soon." He did not specify where in Florida or when.

Irma was expected to roll Monday into Georgia, where Gov. Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency for all 159 counties. Atlanta claimed the dubious distinction of receiving its first tropical storm warning in city history.

The states of Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana and Illinois all could face severe effects from the storm before it quiets by week's end, the National Weather Service said.

Irma slammed into Cudjoe Key on Sunday morning as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 130 mph. That marked the first time two consecutive Category 4 hurricanes have hit the United States, following Hurricane Harvey in Texas last month. Irma also is Florida's first major hurricane since Wilma in 2005.

Larry Kahn, editor of the Keynoter, said power was out and there was no running water at Marathon High School, a "refuge of last resort" on the middle Keys.

“Everything is underwater," Kahn said. "I mean everything."

Sunday night, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay instituted an indefinite dusk-to-dawn curfew to reduce travel danger and the risk of looting.

"Anyone out after the designated times is subject to arrest," he said in a statement.

President Trump spoke to the governors of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, and has been speaking regularly with Florida's Scott and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the White House said. Trump said he was encouraged by the response to the disaster this far.

"I think it's been going really well," Trump said. "FEMA has been incredible. We're working very well with the governor and the other governors in the surrounding states."

In one of the biggest U.S. evacuations ever, about 6.3 million people in Florida — more than one-quarter of the state’s population — were told to clear out from threatened areas. Another 540,000 were directed to move away from the Georgia coast.

More than 10,000 flights were canceled, airports were closed, ocean cruises diverted and Disney resorts shut down as a result of the storm. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport — the world's busiest airport — could see disruptions as Irma moves north.

Irma's track marked the first time the Tampa-St. Petersburg region was the target of a major hurricane in almost a century.

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn warned residents to prepare for the worst.

"Be prepared for a storm that we've never seen before," Buckhorn tweeted. "Our day has come."

Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale, and its 2 million residents remained under a curfew until 10 a.m. ET Monday. The town of Davie reported that a wastewater pump station lost power between Saturday night and Sunday morning and was expected to overflow, raising fears that sewage could contaminate standing water in neighborhoods, officials said.

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Emergency management officials were concerned that east coast residents who evacuated might try to return home after Irma's track veered toward the Gulf coast.

"Don't make a dumb decision," cautioned Brevard County Communications DIrector Don Walker. "Stay put until the all-clear is issued by emergency officials."

That will likely would be Monday afternoon, at the earliest, he said.

Florida Power and Light, which serves nearly 10 million people in southern Florida, expects about 6 million people will be affected by the storm.

A news conference to update the status of outages across the state was interrupted — by a power outage.

The storm's death toll has already reached into the double digitssince roaring out of the open Atlantic and chewing through a string of Caribbean islands.

Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Elaine Duke said the federal government is prepared to respond to Hurricane Irma and the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey simultaneously.

"I don’t have any doubt … that as a federal government we can do this and will do this," she said.

Rice and Bacon reported from McLean, Va. Contributing: Alan Gomez, Trevor Hughes, Bart Jansen and Melanie Eversley, USA TODAY; Joseph Cranney and Arek Sarkissian, Naples Daily News; Isadora Rangel and Nicole Rodriguez, TCPalm; Tyler Vazquez, Florida Today; Kevin Robinson, Pensacola News Journal; The Associated Press

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