By John Cherwa and Les Neuhaus

Los Angeles Times

MIAMI — Florida prepared for deadly winds and life-threatening storm surge from Hurricane Irma Saturday by asking 700,000 more residents to leave their homes in advance of a storm that already has killed at least 20 people as it moved through the Caribbean.

Irma was poised to emerge from northern Cuba Saturday afternoon and head through the warm waters of the Florida Straits. From there, it is expected to intensify, and then cross the Keys for a potentially catastrophic direct hit on Sunday morning.

Tropical storm-force winds could already be felt in areas of South Florida.

Nearly 7 million people — more than a quarter of the population of Florida — have been advised to evacuate over several states.

“If you have been ordered to evacuate anywhere in the state, you need to leave right now,” Gov. Rick Scott said at an afternoon news briefing. “Not tonight, not in an hour, but now. You are running out of time to make a decision.”

Cuba’s meteorological agency reported that Irma struck overnight north of central Camaguey province, home to the country’s third-largest city, with winds so strong that they destroyed measurement instruments.

Hurricane-strength winds were later recorded in the northern half of Camaguey. Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to hit the province in 85 years, according to state media. Damage was reported across the province, the station said: roofs torn off, trees downed and power disconnected.

“No one wants to leave the house, only silence is interrupted by gusts of wind and rain,” Yoani Sanchez, who runs a Havana-based digital news service, 14ymedio, said on Twitter about the situation in Camaguey.

Sanchez posted photos of people crowding the streets of Havana to pray. She reported that supplies were running low.

“Having at least one candle is, at this time, the dream of thousands of Cubanos, but many cannot: the shortage is worsening,” she wrote.

Irma’s center approached the northern coastal resort town of Caibarien early Saturday with winds of 130 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Video posted online showed city streets and palm trees racked by sheets of rain and powerful winds, which knocked out power in the tourist town and flooded main streets and even inland homes with three to four feet of water.

The Cuban provinces of Holguin and Las Tunas remained under a hurricane watch advisory Saturday, while the capital and its surrounding area could be struck by tropical storm-force winds.

The exact path of Irma was still uncertain but it was likely to turn north and follow the west coast of Florida, with the eye coming ashore somewhere between Fort Myers and Tampa. On the opposite coast, that would spare the Miami area Irma’s most ferocious winds and life-threatening storm surge.

Whichever Florida city is dealt the monster storm’s most intense damage, the entire state expects furious weather.

Tampa and St. Petersburg on Tampa Bay are prone to flooding and would likely sustain major damage with any kind of storm surge or significant rainfall. The Tampa area hasn’t been hit directly by a major hurricane since 1921.

The storm is so large that all of southern and central Florida can expect hurricane force winds at some point during the next two days. The National Weather Service warned that no place in the Florida Keys will be safe.

Scott said that 25,000 people had already lost power in South Florida. Florida Power and Light, which services about half the state, estimated that 4 million homes will lose power.

It was projected that the center of Irma will cross over the lower Keys around 8 a.m. Sunday with winds of about 140 mph. It should reach the Fort Myers and Naples area by midafternoon and Tampa by 8 p.m.

The storm is then expected to turn inland toward Orlando and head north and leave the state as a minimal hurricane by Monday morning.

Irma weakened back to a Category 4 hurricane overnight as it brushed the north side of Cuba, and further weakened to Category 3 by Saturday morning. Rugged terrain affected its progress and the winds topped out at 125 mph. But as soon as the storm emerges from Cuba and moves north, the bathwater-like temperatures of the Gulf of Mexico are likely to strengthen it.

The storm was originally expected to make arrive on the east coast of Florida near Miami, but hurricanes are largely unpredictable.

By the time it became apparent that the Gulf Coast would feel the greatest impact it was too late for an orderly evacuation for those who had not already left earlier in the week.