Irma Winds Howl Through Miami Beach As Storm Surge Moves In
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MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) – Downed limbs peppered the streets of Miami Beach as Hurricane Irma moved through the area popular with tourists.
"The wind obviously has been consistent," said CBS4's Silva Harapetian. "Throughout the night, the howling of the wind sounds like, a lot of people say sounds like a freight train….It sounded like a train in a tunnel."
From palm trees to older large trees, some blocked roads in the area.
A major thing missing was people on the streets. Days before evacuations orders were issued for residents due to concerns over dangerous winds and storm surge expected. Some residents did stay but they were warned to keep off the streets as Irma moved in Sunday. One person was seen walking their dog at one moment.
Another major danger has been power lines.
"Last night we also saw a number of explosions from my balcony," said Harapetian. "There were flashes of blue lights and green lights in the distance and we can only assume that those are transformers that were exploding which is why we've been reporting so many people without power."
Many of the businesses heeded warnings and boarded up their windows.
Alton Road seemed like it held up pretty well in the hurricane but, as of 11 am, some flooding could be seen.
Harapetian drove near the beach where you could see storm surge in the area.
"This is the beach. This is all now water," said Harapetian.
