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A boat is washed on shore at the Watson Island marina as Hurricane Irma passed through the area on September 10, 2017 in Miami, Florida.
Hurricane Irma continued to hammer Florida’s coastline on Sunday, after slamming the Keys in the morning and pummeling Miami, Naples and other areas throughout the day.
The storm moved northward near the city of Fort Myers on Sunday evening, according to an update from the National Hurricane Center.
Dangerous storm surges are expected along Florida’s west coast, the NHC said.
As of 8:15 p.m. ET, the eye of the storm was near Fort Myers, but there were reports of trees down as far as Tampa Bay.
NWS
The Tampa area has not seen a hurricane in roughly 90 years. Tampa City Mayor Bill Buckhorn told his constituents Tampa was about to be “punched in the mouth” by the storm. The city, like others, instituted a curfew to keep citizens off the streets while emergency and rescue crews do their work.