After Harvey, US braces for Hurricane Irma

epa06187234 A handout photo made available by the US Navy on 06 September 2017 shows a GOES-East satellite image of Hurricane Irma as it strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane in the Central Atlantic Ocean, 05 September 2017. Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 240 kph with higher gusts. According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), Irma is forecast to remain a powerful category 4 or 5 hurricane during the next couple of days, with hurricane warning in place for Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla, Montserrat, St. Kitts, Nevis, Saba, St. Eustatius, Sint Maarten, Saint Martin, Saint Barthelemy, British Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Vieques, and Culebra, Dominican Republic from Cabo Engano to the northern border with Haiti. EPA-EFE/US NAVY HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

Bloomberg

Hurricane Irma, the most powerful storm to form in the open Atlantic Ocean, was barreling towards Puerto Rico late on Tuesday on a path that may bring it ashore in Florida and destroy so much property that damages may surpass Hurricane Katrina.
Irma has sent cruise lines and insurance stocks plunging, with Barclays Plc estimating insured losses in a worst-case scenario at $130 billion. Natural gas slid on speculation that the storm will wipe out demand for the power-plant fuel, and orange and cotton futures surged on potential crop damage.
Irma comes less than two weeks after Hurricane Harvey smashed ashore in Texas, knocking offline almost a quarter of US oil refining capacity and causing widespread damage, power outages and flooding. While the latest models show the latest storm veering away from gas and oil platforms off the coast of Texas and Louisiana, sparing Houston more devastation, it threatens to wreak havoc upon the Caribbean islands and Florida.

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