Photo: Irma National Hurricane Center projected pathway.
(CNN)Editor’s note: This is a developing story that is being constantly updated as the storm progresses. Also, follow our live updates here.
Irma’s rampage across Florida broke records in Jacksonville before heading north to torment Georgia and beyond.
Jacksonville, the largest city geographically in the country, is grappling with a record storm surge and immense flooding. The city’s Memorial Park has turned into an unrecognizable lake.
Photo: Jacksonville Memorial Park now under water.
“We have very serious, significant river flooding along the banks of the St. Johns River. It’s bad now, it’s going to continue to get worse,” meteorologist Angie Enyedi said. “We’ve already surpassed historic levels, the levels will continue to rise.”
The storm was still hurling 65 mph winds Monday, pummeling cities in northeast Florida that had not expected to feel its full wrath.
Emergency workers in Daytona Beach rescued 25 people with a high-water truck after they were suddenly caught in an onslaught of wind and rain.
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” CNN correspondent Sara Sidner said from Daytona Beach. “It’s been strong enough to knock us over.”
Another 125 emergency rescues were made in less than an hour Monday in Orange County, home to Orlando — an inland city to which many coastal residents had evacuated before the hurricane.
Now the entire Georgia coast is under a storm surge warning as Irma continues its destructive march north.
Photo: Irma USA projected pathway.