颶風“艾爾瑪”肆虐南佛羅里達
Hurricane Irma smashed into Florida as a category 4 storm on Sunday, leaving more than 1.4m properties without power as 130mph winds and sea surges left homes in the Keys, a string of low-lying islands on the state’s southernmost tip, under water.
風暴等級4級的颶風“艾爾瑪”(Hurricane Irma)週日侵襲佛羅里達州，時速達到130英里的大風和洶涌的海水導致該州最南端地勢較低的佛羅里達礁島羣(Keys)被海水淹沒，逾2百萬棟房屋斷電。Further north, Miami residents awoke to find they had dodged the most dangerous part of the storm after its track shifted west and focused much of the danger on Tampa and St Petersburg. But downtown Miami streets were flooded, “Stop” signs twisted in 70mph winds, cranes toppled over and flying debris smashed into homes and buildings.
更北的邁阿密(Miami)的居民醒來後發現，他們避過了這場風暴最危險的部分，因爲風暴軌跡向西移動，主要危險集中在佛羅里達州的坦帕(Tampa)和聖彼德斯堡(St Petersburg)。但邁爾密市中心的街道仍被淹沒，時速70英里的大風使“停車”標識牌彎折，起重機被掀翻，民宅和建築物被飛揚的碎片擊中。Earlier on Sunday Cuba, which prides itself on disaster management, was dealing with heavy flooding in Havana after 35ft waves battered seafront hotels and severely damaged tourist areas in the north. At least 25 people have been killed across the Caribbean.
週日早些時候，以災害管理能力爲自豪的古巴正在應對哈瓦那的嚴重洪災，此前35英尺的大浪侵襲海濱酒店，給北部的旅遊區造成嚴重破壞。加勒比海地區至少有25人喪生。
The unexpected change in Irma’s path means Florida’s low-lying Gulf coast will now suffer the brunt of the Texas-sized storm, with up to 15ft of life-threatening seawater storm surge. Irma is then forecast to swing inland towards Georgia on Monday. The National Hurricane Center issued tornado warnings throughout southern Florida.
“艾爾瑪”意外改道意味着佛羅里達州地勢較低的墨西哥灣沿岸地區將遭受這場風暴的最大沖擊，這場颶風的波及面相當於德克薩斯州，並帶來高達15英尺的危險海水風暴潮。根據預報，“艾爾瑪”週一將撲向內陸地區，直奔喬治亞州。美國國家颶風中心(National Hurricane Center)針對整個南佛羅里達發佈了龍捲風預警。“This is a worst-case scenario” for the west coast and the Florida Keys, Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said on Fox News. “Storm surge has the highest potential to kill the most amount of people and cause the most damage.”
聯邦緊急事務管理署(Federal Emergency Management Agency，簡稱FEMA)負責人布羅克?朗(Brock Long)在福克斯新聞(Fox News)上表示，對佛羅里達西海岸和佛羅里達礁島羣而言，這是“最糟糕情形”。“風暴潮造成最多人員傷亡和最大破壞的可能性最高。”Rick Scott, Florida governor, added: “I’m very concerned about the west coast. The storm surge is absolutely life threatening. It’s going to be devastating to these areas.”
佛羅里達州州長裏克?斯科特(Rick Scott)補充道：“我非常擔心西海岸。風暴潮絕對是威脅生命的。它將給這些地區造成極大破壞。”Florida Power & Light, the state’s largest utility, said repairs to its power system would take weeks, threatening to leave millions in the dark. Elaine Duke, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said on MSNBC that they expected 5m people eventually to lose power in Florida.
該州最大公用事業公司Florida Power & Light表示，修復其電力系統需要數週時間，這可能使數百萬人繼續斷電。美國國土安全部(Department of Homeland Security)代理部長伊萊恩?杜克(Elaine Duke)在MSNBC上表示，該部預計佛羅里達州最終將有500萬人遭遇斷電。
More than 6m people have been ordered to leave their homes in the state, the largest mass evacuation in US history. More than 500,000 of them are around Tampa, on the Gulf coast. Tampa is widely deemed one of the US cities most vulnerable to storms because of western Florida’s shallow continental shelf, over which high winds can pile more water than along deeper shorelines, followed by the narrow opening of Tampa Bay through which the surge waters could be funneled onshore.
逾600萬人被當局命令撤離他們在佛羅里達州的住所，這是美國史上規模最大的大規模撤離。地處墨西哥灣沿岸的坦帕周圍有逾50萬人被要求撤離。坦帕是廣泛認爲是最容易遭受風暴侵襲的美國城市之一，原因是西佛羅里達的大陸架較淺，相比較深的海岸線，這裏在遭遇大風侵襲時會蓄積更多的水，而且坦帕灣的狹窄入口會導致浪潮涌上岸。President Donald Trump has pledged to provide whatever resources the state needs to rebuild from Irma, Mr Scott said. The damage may be significant. According to RMS, an analytics firm, Irma has a storm force of 100 terajoules, three times the size of Hurricane Harvey, which struck Texas last month and caused an estimated $180bn of damage.
佛羅里達州州長斯科特表示，唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)總統已承諾，向受颶風“艾爾瑪”襲擊的該州提供災後重建所需的一切資源。此次災情可能非常嚴重。根據分析公司RMS的數據，“艾爾瑪”的風暴能量可能達到100太焦耳，是上月襲擊德克薩斯州(Texas)、估計造成1800億美元損失的颶風“哈維”(Hurricane Harvey)的三倍。The UN estimates that around 37m people will be affected by Irma in total, throughout the US and the Caribbean.
聯合國(UN)估計，在美國和整個加勒比海地區，總共約有3700萬人將受到颶風“艾爾瑪”的影響。
