Tropical Storm Irma continued to show massive power on Monday.
As the storm pressed north, it covered the entire states of Georgia and South Carolina, nearly all of Alabama, and portions of Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee, according to radar from the National Weather Service. The storm churned about 70 miles east of Tallahassee, Florida, and about 85 miles north of Cedar Key, Florida, at 11 a.m., ET, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Irma is expected to bring a total of 8 to 15 inches of rain to the northern Florida Peninsula and southern Georgia, according to the NHC. It is expected to bring 3 inches – up to 10 inches in isolated areas — to the central Florida Panhandle, western Alabama, northern Mississippi, southern Tennessee, northern Georgia, northern South Carolina and western North Carolina, NHC forecasts show.
Irma’s winds remained destructive though they have slowed since making landfall over the weekend. The storm produced maximum sustained winds of 65 mph as of 11 a.m. ET, the NHC said.
Tornadoes are possible Monday in the day and through the night near the Georgia and South Carolina coasts, the NHC said.
More than 430,000 Georgia Power customers have already lost electricity as of 1 p.m. E.T, the company said. Irma left millions of people in Florida without power.
The South Carolina Ports Authority said it would close all Charleston operations Monday at 2 p.m. It expects to reopen Tuesday.
Irma hit Florida after powering through the Caribbean as a rare Category 5 hurricane, the top rung of the Saffir-Simpson scale. It killed 38 people, including 10 in Cuba, which was battered over the weekend by ferocious winds and 36-foot waves.
Northeastern Florida cities including Jacksonville were flooding on Monday, with city sheriffs pulling residents from waist-deep water.
“Stay inside. Go up. Not out,” Jacksonville’s website warned residents. “There is flooding throughout the city and more rain is expected.”
During its passage through the Caribbean en route to Florida, Irma was ranked at the rare top end of the scale of hurricane intensity, a Category 5, for days. It carried maximum sustained winds of up to 185 mph when it crashed into the island of Barbuda on Wednesday.
Ahead of Irma’s arrival, some 6.5 million people in southern Florida, about a third of the state’s population, were ordered to evacuate their homes. Some 200,000 were housed in shelters during the storm, according to federal officials.
Delta said it has decided to cancel about 800 flights Monday as Irma tracks toward its Atlanta hub with “strong crosswinds that exceed operating limits on select mainline and regional aircraft.” Over the weekend, Irma grounded a greater-than-expected 12,000-plus flights on four continents.
Miami and Tampa international airports, as well as airports in Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, were closed on Monday.
-Reuters contributed to this report