this is bbc news. the headlines at 11. hurricane irma pounds cuba with winds of more than 150 miles per hour. the cuban the cu ban authorities the cuban authorities did try to move large numbers of people out of harm ‘s way but still, many have been left, particularly in the central province. we understand there are many thousands of people there are many thousands of people there without power at the moment. as the casualty toll mounts, it's confirmed five people have been killed in the british virgin islands — another person died in anguilla. as the storm approaches florida, governor rick scott gave a stark warning to residents that they must seek shelter. millions of floridians will see major hurricane impact with deadly, deadly, deadly storm surge. and life—threatening winds. in the memory of those people, let

us in the memory of those people, let us show the world... and in other news — the manchester arena re—opens tonight with a benefit concert, more than three months after the terrorist attack which killed 22 people. and the american sloane stephens, ranked eighty—third in the world, causes a major upset, by winning the us open. good evening and welcome to bbc news hurricane irma continues to leave a trail of destruction across the caribbean, today hitting the largest island — cuba's northern coastline — cutting power and engulfing villages in storm surges. it hit in the early morning, with winds of up to 160 miles per hour.

more than a million people — have been moved to safety along with thousands of tourists, many of them british. the hurricane‘s expected to reach florida early tomorrow — landing initially in the florida keys and then moving across the southwest of the state. millions of people were ordered to leave their homes. tonight, time ran out and those who stayed are told it's too late to leave. will grant reports from the cuban capital havana. cu ba ns cubans had hoped they had avoided the worst of the hurricane and. they had no such luck. with the full force of a category five storm, the hurricane in tour through the island's northern shore. the storm surge almost completely engulfing several small fishing village is. electricity and communication links

are out across swathes of the country. some communities along the coast are wondering how they will ever rebuild, others are bracing themselves for irma's impact. even in the big cities, people are getting nervous. translation: i'm really worried. my home is not in a good state so i hope the hurricane and stays away and moves out to save. translation: it is one of the bigger storms we have ever seen so we have to get ready. as hurricane irma rumble stomach coast of cuba, even those places that were supposed to serve as safe havens such as the capital havana are now under barricade warning. answer the many thousands who evacuated here, they hope they still have homes to return to. kubo was in the middle of the tourism boom when the storm struck and thousands of holidaymakers found themselves suddenly trap in the

biggest cocaine to hit canberra another 80 years. among them, a british couple evacuated from their honeymoon. they blamed their tour operator, thomas cook, for not providing more information. were left in the dark until thursday morning when we were told we would be evacuated by coach. we were evacuated from i's own, whether cocaine was going to strike, in another. thomas cook has defended their emergency response saying they followed the instructions of the cuban government to transport tourists to another resort. beyond those who've had the holidays ruined, this could also cut short cuba's ever to rebuild its crippled economy. tourism has been the main economic murder of the island recently, earn them a set that for many months. sam lee the joint is

sam lee thejoint is on sam lee the joint is on the line now. he is an holiday in cuba and, sam, tell us what you are doing in cuba. i am on holiday with my wife. we got married a few weeks ago. oh, what a honeymoon. not the best. what has it been like, sam? the evacuation was a nightmare. we are now in another city and we are watching these storm... sam, the line is not the best. i understand you travelled out there with thomas cook, your trip was arranged via

thomas cook. how helpful have they been to you? we have not had help at all. on wednesday, they flew in a group of british tourists, only to then have to evacuate them on thursday. you have sent us some pictures of what it is like out there. of the northern coast of cuba itself. what are you worried about at the moment, sam? i'm not worried. we are in a games room with food and drink. no idea yet when we can

return to our rooms. just quickly, thomas cook have issued a statement and they said that the evacuation to another part of the country was directed by cu ban another part of the country was directed by cuban authorities. the statement goes on to say that our specialist assistant assistance team is on the ground where tourists were evacuated to. our customers along with our resort staff are providing as much information and resort nonaggression reassurance as possible. it is an lockdown so eve ryo ne possible. it is an lockdown so everyone is confined to the hotel room. they are therefore unable to meet individual league with customers or provide briefings. you does then say that they have an additional 21 staff flying to cuba over the next 2a hours to offer further support. has thomas cook

informed you of this? not me personally. obviously thomas cook, being the large organisation they are, they can fly specialist staff in on wednesday. sam, thank you very much. i really do hope that the honeymoon improves. we did ask thomas cook to come on the programme but they declined to. as i said, we do have that statement and they have pointed out as well that the strike thatis pointed out as well that the strike that is taking place over pay of thomas cook pilots has nothing and

no impact on their hurricane implants. stephen o'malley is the un co—ordinator of humanitarian affairs in the eastern caribbean and he joins me via webcam from barbados. thank you forjoining us. what is your assessment of hurricane irma so farand your assessment of hurricane irma so far and the damage that those images we seen on our screens. it is a really unprecedented hurricane and. i don't think we have had one of the strengths are at least in 15 years, going through the caribbean. possibly longer. as you said, in the pa rt possibly longer. as you said, in the part of the caribbean that i cover, including antigua and barbuda, the bvi and and will you have seen the devastation, the roofs torn off buildings, we know that some of the hurricane shelters were affected as

well. —— anguilla. it is quite u nfortu nate well. —— anguilla. it is quite unfortunate that we have had some loss of life but i'm far more happy that the toll was not an greater. how can you foresee how the islands are going to cope with rebuilding, firstly by recovering and then rebuilding? you have to recognise that there is an incredible amount of resilience in the islands. you have people who have dealt with these kind of storms. they dealt with the effects of climate change for some time and we know that they are already starting to rebuild, already starting to clean the roads in places where normal life can be restored. that is what is happening. people are quite resilient and they wa nt to people are quite resilient and they want to get back on their feet and back to normal life as quickly as possible. there will need help, they

will need international assistance. we in the united nations are trying to do that as well. the government have been proactive. yesterday the government of antigua successfully evacuated the entire island of barbuda in the face of hurricane jose to keep those people save. there is a very strong effort to ta ke there is a very strong effort to take care of people. what are the immediate needs in terms of getting shelter and having a roof over their heads, food, water we understand. how on earth do you start to rebuild a country? well, i think, as you said, ourfocus a country? well, i think, as you said, our focus right a country? well, i think, as you said, ourfocus right now is on providing people with the immediate needs, meeting the immediate needs of people to keep them safe and sheltered. that is shelter material to replace some of those groups, it is figuring out what sort of food

and water is available and there is, it in some places, the supermarkets or other markets, they will still have food and people stockpile as well before these events. definitely, we need to make sure we move in food, water, shelter. we need to get the water and sanitation systems going again and the bvi and anguilla, we also have electricity generators down and they have effo rts generators down and they have efforts right now to bring that back up. thank you very much. here, the government says it's continuing to step up military support to the region. british police officers will be deployed, along with 500 troops to the british virgin islands which was badly hit, with at least five people feared dead. our correspondent laura bicker

was one of the first journalists to reach the islands and she described what she saw we have just flown over the virgin islands and i can tell you that some of the devastation is very difficult to witness. houses look like they have been blown apart in places. once prized possession, scattered and in ruins. you can see the effects of that 20 foot storm surge. boats lie littered around the islands and where they have been more together they have crashed and sent flying into pieces. there has been criticism here of the british government's response to this crisis. i can tell you that the royal army engineers are here. they are assessing this runway as a priority and that is because they need to get aid in and people out. has also been concern about looting andi has also been concern about looting and i am being told by the deputy governor that they are trying to get things under control. there is still

a lot of work to do here. on the line is christie baylour. she has just married in the past hour and has had to postpone her wedding cruise through the caribbean due to the storms. are you with us? yes. i am. congratulations. thank you so much. and you went through with the wedding? yes. we found a way. we got it done. what was that like? oh, it was like a rollercoaster. we had to put a wedding together in 1.5 days. why did you rush it through? why not wait? we liked the date. 9-9. and all about guests, everything, wait? we liked the date. 9-9. and allabout guests, everything, it wait? we liked the date. 9-9. and all about guests, everything, it all has 99 on it. it was rushed but what

was it like? we found out on wednesday that the cruise, we had to cancel the wedding, so thursday and friday we had to find a place who could hold a party of 30 or a0 people. they went above and beyond. they had to get cake and flowers because of the hurricane and, many of the florists did not have flowers any longer. so they had to get that, we had to find a place to hold the ceremony. we have been trying to get someone to marry out, a marriage license... this has been a million things. i would just like to get something clear. where did you get married? we got married in atlanta, georgia. so what are you thinking then about what is coming up through florida? it is supposed to hit atla nta florida? it is supposed to hit atlanta as well so after this we

have to prepare as well for when it hits here. but, you know, we think it will be devastating to florida. they are evacuating and we just don't think it would be safe to have it they are. we will have delivered there so you can go back to your celebrations. big congratulations to yourself and your husband. keep reminding him how lucky he is. always a silver lining! the storm is expected to make landfall on the us coast tomorrow before heading inland. in florida, more than six million people, a quarter of its population, have been told to evacuate. aleem maqbool reports from miami. even so many miles out to sea, irma is now making its presence felt on the american mainland. there's

little left to do for people in florida but to get somewhere safe and white. this hurricane shelter, like so many more across the city, packed to capacity. we just decided we we re packed to capacity. we just decided we were going to leave and we got up and saw on the tv all the traffic backed up, they say it's backed up to atla nta. backed up, they say it's backed up to atlanta. we said we waited to long to leave so we decided to stay. we left everything, our furniture, our apartment. i always say, material things we can build again. the most important thing is to come here. after days of talking about it and after a ll after days of talking about it and after all the warnings it's starting to feel real for the people of florida. the skies have darkened and the winds have picked up and the rains have started. and in the coming hours people here feel they're going to be in the firm grip of hurricane irma. nasa has recorded this spectacular footage of the eye

of the hurricane and its massive cloud mass, all on a projected course for florida. this is a deadly major storm and our state has never seen anything like it. millions of floridians will see major hurricane impacts with deadly, deadly, deadly storm surge and life—threatening winds. in spite of all the ominous warnings... i like this better... there are many in florida who won't leave their homes like vince, preparing this house before the rains came. it's out of your hands, it's in mother nature's hands, you can't control it but what you can control is boarding up, protecting it, having water, generators, gas. down the road, christina, who says she is staying put. i don't care. i know what's going to happen will happen, why do you have to be scared? i don't care. but thousands don't want to risk

gambling with nature. they're anxious, though, about the city they will emerge out into once irma has passed. aleem maqbool, bbc news, miami, florida. on the line we have the former us air force meteorologist lieutenant colonel chad gibson from the hurricane hunters. first off, lieutenant gibson, where are you? i'm located in mississippi where the 53rd weather reconnaissance squadron is located, the hurricane hunters, in blotchy, mississippi. do we need to ta ke in blotchy, mississippi. do we need to take that name literally? you are a hurricane hunter? i have been with the hurricane hunters for ten years. iama the hurricane hunters for ten years. i am a meteorologist by training and i have flown through katrina, wilma,

major hurricanes since 2000. i have not flown irma directly but i have flown quite a few. what do you do when you fly a hurricane, why do you do itand when you fly a hurricane, why do you do it and what are you getting out of it? the simple answer is we save lives. the day we are collecting inside the storm, people think we fly above, we don't, we fly through the middle of the storm and the w c130 the middle of the storm and the w 030 j the middle of the storm and the w c130j server he kilis aircraft is what we fly right through the centre no higher than 10,000 feet in the centre of the fury of mother nature —— super hercules. the winds are 180 knots. that's incredible and can cause in credible damage along the coastline. it already has on many of

the islands it has passed by. we collect the day and we increased the a ccu ra cy of collect the day and we increased the accuracy of the forecast anywhere up to 30%. you can imagine the forecast window expanding even further by 30%, there's a lot more people that need to evacuate than the people who don't believe the forecast and that's why we save lives tie rack directly —— directly. that's why we save lives tie rack directly -- directly. have you flown irma? not personally but our hurricane hunters and the air forces have been flying 2a hours a day right through the centre of the storm. what have you learned about her? i have been briefed the crews as they come in and because the storm is interacting with many of the islands, it's been a turbulent flight the islands, it's been a turbulent flight where we have been thrown in all different directions —— debriefed. it's been a rough ride.

we have learned that this is a very strong hurricane. because the conditions are very conducive for this to build right up to category five, it's been increasing in speed but then it builds up, this energy is not dissipating and that is very frightening for the residence on the coast because by the time it heads towards our us coastline, it could bea towards our us coastline, it could be a category five yet again —— residents. those are devastating winds. also the storm surge associated is massive, a tidal wave of water that comes along. in the research that you do and the day you collect, is there any aspect of the research you carried out looking at climate change in terms of how frequent and how powerful these hurricanes now are? we haven't really seen a correlation with that. you have to keep in mind climate

change day... we're only basing that on 50, 60 years worth of day and there's a lot more to cover. we've had very strong storms in the past and we don't attribute it to anything and we like to primarily focus on what we do and that's collect the day for the storms out there and leave the climatology for those experts in the climatology office. lieutenant colonel chad gibson, thank you very much for your time, real live hurricane hunter. we are going to go to florida where governor rick scott is speaking. let's listen in. now is the time to do the right thing for yourfamily. now is the time to do the right thing for your family. please take advantage of the school bus evacuations. if you need to leave and are unable to do so for any reason then called 18003a23557 and we will do everything we can to get you out —— call. protecting life is our absolute top priority. no resorts or expense will be spared to

protect families. daschle resource. iurge protect families. daschle resource. i urge everyone to check on their neighbours, family and friends —— resource. if you know someone that isn't evacuating but should then please contact them and make sure they have a plan to get out now. we have been very aggressive in our preparation for this storm and now it's upon us. every floridian should ta ke it's upon us. every floridian should take this seriously and be aggressive to protect their family. possessions can be replaced, your life, yourfamily possessions can be replaced, your life, your family cannot be replaced. shelters. we have been working around the clock with counties to ensure there is enough shelters. currently there is more than 385 shelters open across every cou nty than 385 shelters open across every county in the path of the storm and more opening tonight. more than 70,000 floridians have taken shelter and there's still room for more. if you have a building and emergency officials ask you to open a shelter,

please comply. this is so important forfamilies. everyone please comply. this is so important for families. everyone in please comply. this is so important forfamilies. everyone in florida needs to find a safe place to go. traffic. evacuation routes are moving and we've implemented emergency shoulder use on either for from 50th st in tampa to the east of state road a9 in orlando. —— i—a. check real—time traffic information on flv file president erdogan .com. -- flv 511 on flv file president erdogan .com. —— flv 511.com. i waved florida's motorfuel i waved florida's motor fuel import tax for five days to bring more fuel to our state for storm response and recovery. this will make our ever to bring in fuel from neighbouring states after the storm easier. we know fuel is important and we are

doing everything we can with the state resources to address the problem to ensure we have fuel immediately for everybody for first responders and rescue efforts. every single florida guardsman who has been called up has been deployed to prepare and respond to this storm. we have so many members of the law enforcement community who are putting their lives at risk to help floridians get safe and they will not stop until it is no longer safe. we cannot thank them enough. that was the governor, governor scott updating floridians on the latest concerning hurricane irma. listening to that it sounded as if this really was the last chance to get yourself to a shelter, 385 currently open and there's more opening before irma hits. their main concern is the fuel as well, particularly to get it to the first

responders so that's the latest coming out of florida from rick scott. as far as the weather goes, let's find out how that's looking with phil avery. just proving it is live at 11:27pm at the bbc, thanks very much! i want to keep you closer to home to get you through the next couple of days or so across the british isles. blustery old fair across the british isles today and even when it wasn't showery it looks like it might have, as it did in weymouth in dorset and that's not the end of the story because many of the shower is now showing signs of wanting to fade. before the next area of cloud, wind and rain moves in, a nose of high pressure building in and it kills off many of the showers many saw during the day. things looking fairly quiet at the moment. however, asi fairly quiet at the moment. however, as i say there's something waiting in the winds. before the cloud and rain associated with that spills

into western scotland and northern ireland temperatures will dip for a time and then you're getting back your share of the duvet, the temperatures will warmup later on in the night. ahead of that where the skies stay clear, across east anglia for example, we could be looking at four or five degrees to start the new day on sunday. once the sun is up new day on sunday. once the sun is up they will pick up quite nicely, 12 or13, a up they will pick up quite nicely, 12 or 13, a lot of dry weather around, central and eastern parts at this stage, he said ominously but away towards the north and west, signs of the cloud filling in and the rain associated with that all over scotla nd the rain associated with that all over scotland early in the morning. so too in northern ireland. this whole feature is moving with some speedin whole feature is moving with some speed in scotland through northern ireland but it only makes room for some really hefty showers and the watchword is for the great north run, the longer you stay on the course the more likely it is you will get wet. there's an incentive to crack on if you can! there's a helping wind as well, that should get you towards south shields very

quickly from gateshead but once the front has moved through there will bea front has moved through there will be a raft of showers moving through northern ireland and scotland, some will be heavy and prolonged and maybe some thunder and all the while this front in the south taking its time to get across to east anglia and the south—east so you have time if you want to plan for the date out east. eventually as the front moves through do get the chance of some late brightness —— for the day. notice the number of isobars early monday, either side of the bristol channel, 50, 60 mph gusts perhaps, into monday, which will be a blustery old day and not overly warm given the strength of the wind, things quiet inning down by tuesday. —— quiet inning. —— quiet inning.