Irma: More than five million urged to flee Florida as record-breaking hurricane bears down on US coast

‘Civilians and officials in Florida are rushing to prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Irma, or crawling through highway gridlock to try to escape the path of a record-breaking storm that has already devastated much of the Caribbean.
The state has called called on 5.6 million people to evacuate, or more than one quarter of the state’s population, according to state emergency officials.
US President Donald Trump called Irma “a storm of absolutely historic destructive potential” in his weekly address to the nation, and Florida’s officials are becoming increasingly desperate in their pleas for residents to leave.
“We are running out of time. If you are in an evacuation zone, you need to go now. This is a catastrophic storm like our state has never seen,” Florida Governor Rick Scott said, adding that the storm’s effects would be felt from coast to coast in the state.’
Read more: Irma: More than five million urged to flee Florida as record-breaking hurricane bears down on US coast