Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Brace for Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Irma is a monster. After the storm reached Category 5 intensity Tuesday morning, the National Hurricane Center says it became the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic outside of the warm waters of the Caribbean or the Gulf of Mexico. And even as the Gulf region of the United States deals with the ongoing devastation of Hurricane Harvey and its week of flooding, coastal areas of the country are again bracing for the worst with Irma.

Much of the national focus has been on Miami, Florida, which sits within Irma’s cone of probability,, despite managing to avoid direct hits for decades. But the portents are perhaps even more dire in the U.S. territories in the Caribbean, which along with several island and archipelago nations in that sea will face a direct hit from Irma at its strongest.