Hurricane Irma heads Florida after killing 18 people in Caribbean islands

Hurricane Irma will "devastate" part of the US, authorities warned, as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century closed in on the state of Florida after lashing the Caribbean with devastating winds and rain and killing at least 18 people.

Irma was about 724 km southeast of Miami, Florida, early on Friday (local time) after saturating the northern coasts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti and pummelling the Turks and Caicos Islands, ABC News reported.

The "extremely dangerous" hurricane was downgraded from a category five to a category four early on Friday but still packed winds as strong as 240 km per hour, the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said in an advisory.

Head of the US' Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Brock Long said US officials were preparing a massive response to the storm.

"Hurricane Irma continues to be a threat that is going to devastate the United States in either Florida or some of the southeastern states," he said.

Long warned that parts of Florida would be out of electricity for days, if not longer, and that more than 100,000 people may need shelter.
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Typhoon Noru injures 51, causes heavy rains, floods, property damage

Typhoon Noru dumped heavy rain on Japan on Tuesday as it moved back out to sea, causing flooding and property damage while the number of injured reportedly rose to 51.

After making landfall in western Japan the previous day, the storm packing winds of up to 108 kilometres (67 miles) per hour ploughed across the main island of Honshu.

The typhoon was 40 kilometres off the coast of northern Niigata prefecture by today, slowly moving towards the northeast, Japan's meteorological agency said. The storm earlier killed two people on outlying islands Saturday.

Public broadcaster NHK said the number of people injured in accidents related to the typhoon had reached 51.

Aerial footage showed a flooded river in western Japan's Shiga prefecture, while houses, rice paddies and roads were submerged.

On Saturday, a man in his 60s on the southern island of Yakushima died after falling in strong gusts generated by Noru and hitting his head.

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