Hurricane Irma: First Look at Florida Mainland Damage

By Charlie Ridgely

Irma has finally been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, but not before tearing through most of Florida's major cities.

While the storm was still a Category 4 hurricane, Irma made landfall down in Miami over the weekend. It made its way up the western coast of Florida, before spreading to cover most of the state. Across the board, many cities were affected by Irma's power.

From Miami to Naples, Tampa to Jacksonville, Hurricane Irma proved to be a monster of a storm. The photos and videos from the major cities in Florida show just how dangerous the storm was, even after losing most of its steam as it moved through the state.

Here's what most of the state looked like on Monday morning, following the devastating weekend.

Miami

Along with the Florida Keys, Miami took most of the damage of Hurricane Irma. Residents of the city were asked to evacuate earlier in the week, and the images from the city prove exactly why that decision was made.

One of the videos that many were sharing from Irma's time in Miami was a clip of a crane on a high-rise, spinning wildly in the winds of the storm.

The tall buildings weren't the only ones affected, as you can see in the video below. With winds whipping through the city, a roof was taken straight off a local building.

Miami got some of the worst winds that Irma had to offer, and recovering from the storm could take some time.

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Naples

Just north of Miami, Naples also had to deal with plenty of nasty damage from Irma's winds and rain.

The video above was taken from the inside of a hurricane shelter during the worst the eyewall of Irma. As you can see outside of the windows, this was a massive storm.

Now that the hurricane has passed the city, it's time to look ahead, and time to get things back up and running.

Unfortunately, the incredible amount of flooding is going to make that difficult.

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Tampa

Irma slowed down quite a bit before it hit the Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg area, but there was still some significant damage to deal with.

The Category 1 winds were powerful enough to knock down trees and powerlines, and cause enough flooding to give the residents of the cities some problems.

As you can see, many of the roads are littered with debris, and there will be some work to do to get things running smoothly once again.

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Jacksonville

For a few days, it looked as though the east coast of Florida would be missed by Irma altogether. However, as the storm shifted again, Jacksonville got plenty of nasty weather.

As the images from the roads show, there is a lot flooding in the area, and many trees down to deal with.

Some residents may not have been expecting the kind of flooding that the city received, as they got a fairly unpleasant surprise when they went to leave their homes.

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