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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