Hurricane Irma snaps a crane in two as it rips through downtown Miami

Hurricane Irma continues on it's path of destruction, having made landfall in Florida yesterday.

While over six and a half million people in Florida were told to evacuate in the face of the increasingly strong hurricane, the winds that arrived there were gauged at being in excess of 150 mph. Apparently, the cranes are built to withstand winds up to 145 mph, and while the weather experts in the US have been tracking Irma for over a week, there was no confident way of predicting the direction it might head in. Additionally, each crane can take five or six days each to dismantle, and local news outlets say there are twenty to twenty-five construction cranes currently erected in the downtown Miami area. This has led to some of the cranes snapping due to the extreme conditions, and authorities are doubling down on the evacuation warning for those still in the area:

VIDEO: Holy frickin' moly! This construction crane collapsed in #DowntownMiami. @nbc6 #hurricaneirma #irma #miami ( Alex Bello) pic.twitter.com/DH6DcyS3HJ

— Kelly Blanco (@KellyNBC6) September 10, 2017

Spoke with Miami's Dep Building Director. The crane itself appears to have collapsed. 2 firefighters said they watched the arm bend and fall https://t.co/7SLN4TSdOp

— David Smiley (@NewsbySmiley) September 10, 2017

“I heard a loud crack, and then like a boom,” witness to construction crane incident in downtown Miami says https://t.co/SiXKtNQwiZ pic.twitter.com/rhA9g9k9LE

— CNN International (@cnni) September 10, 2017

If you're in a building in the area of NE 3rd street & Biscayne Blvd facing the crane seek shelter in the opposite side of Bldg or stairwell

— City of Miami (@CityofMiami) September 10, 2017

Crane collapse in northern sector of downtown #Miami isn't harming anyone, yet... pic.twitter.com/anf9TKOb02

— Grant Stern (@grantstern) September 10, 2017

The streets of the city have now turned into rivers as the massive floods continue. Locals have been capturing the devastation from inside buildings in the city and the footage is quite shocking.

Store owners in #Miami watch as their store is surrounded by a wall of water. What a terrible and uneasy feeling. #HurricaneIrma #Irma @WFLA pic.twitter.com/F0wALvDpJz

— Josh Benson (@WFLAJosh) September 10, 2017

Downtown Miami looks like a watery war zone. This is more than 100 miles from #Irma's eye pic.twitter.com/F71QYi0Vd2

— Brian L Kahn (@blkahn) September 10, 2017