San Juan— Hurricane Irma slammed across islands in the Caribbean on Wednesday, packing a potentially catastrophic mix of pounding winds, raging surf and rain en route to a possible Florida landfall at the weekend. Irma is expected to become the second powerful storm to thrash the US mainland in as many weeks but its precise trajectory was uncertain. Hurricane Harvey killed more than 60 people and caused as much as $180bn in damage after hitting Texas late in August. The eye of Irma, a category 5 storm with winds of 295km/h, passed over the island of St Martin, east of the US territory of Puerto Rico, on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) in Miami said. Category 5 is its highest. In Puerto Rico’s capital of San Juan, a handful of people stood on the wind-whipped shore of a beachfront park on Wednesday morning to take a last look at the ocean before seeking shelter. "I am worried. This is going to be a huge storm, bigger than I have ever seen," said Angelica Flecha. She ha...
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