Irma was downgraded from a hurricane to tropical storm Monday, but that did nothing to quell the threat of more destruction in the coming hours.
The storm was still hurling 70 mph winds Monday morning, pummeling cities in northeast Florida that had not expected to feel its full wrath.
Palm Bay officer Dustin Terkoski walks over debris from a two-story home in Brevard County, Florida.
Emergency workers in Daytona Beach rescued 25 people with a high-water truck after they were suddenly caught in an onslaught of wind and rain.
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” CNN correspondent Sara Sidner said from Daytona Beach. “It’s been strong enough to knock us over.”
Another 125 emergency rescues were made in less than an hour Monday in Orange County, home to Orlando — an inland city where many coastal residents had evacuated to before the hurricane.
Jacksonville — the largest city geographically in the country — is grappling with a record storm surge and will get slammed with severe flash flooding before Irma continues her destructive northward march to Georgia and beyond.
Jovies's Experiment 