Hurricane Irma Regains Category 4 Strength

09/10/2017 09:51 am EDT

Hurricane Irma has strengthened into a Category 4 storm as its eye hits the Florida Keys.

The eyewall is currently lashing the lower Florida Keys as it prepares to continue along the western coast clipping Naples and Fort Myers before it hits Tampa.

The storm is intensifying in the warm gulf water along the coast.

More than 6 million people were ordered to evacuate the state, which is the largest mandatory evacuation in U.S. history. Residents in southeast Florida have also reported tornadoes.

The storm has also already knocked out power for more than 500,000 people. The largest outage is over 533,000 for Miami-Dade County, and Palm Beach County has reported over 108,000 outages.

As of 8 a.m. ET, Irma was approximately 20 miles southeast of Key West and 110 miles south of Naples.

Just as Hurricane Irma begins to hit Florida, Hurricane Jose is not too far behind. The second hurricane, heading in a similar path as Irma, remains a Category 4 storm with 130 miles per hour winds.

As of 8 a.m. ET, Jose is positioned northeast of Puerto Rico, with recorded winds of 110 miles per hour.

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