It flooded streets, snapped construction cranes and left 58% of Florida electricity customers without power about 5.8 million accounts according to Florida's State Emergency Response Team. Meanwhile, more than 100,000 customers in Georgia also were without power Monday.
At least 5 deaths in Florida were attributed to Irma, according to ABC News. The storm also killed at least 20 people in the Caribbean since roaring out of the Atlantic Ocean and chewing through a string of islands.Where is Hurricane Irma now?
At 11 a.m. ET on Monday, the center of the storm was about 70 miles east of Tallahassee, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Irma is moving to the northwest at 17 mph with sustained winds of 65 mph.
Irma is expected to weaken further as it continues into southwestern Georgia later Monday, the center said. It's set to enter eastern Alabama on Tuesday morning, and should turn into a tropical depression that day.
The storm hit Cudjoe Key at Category 4 strength, as predicted, with ferocious 130 mph sustained winds and blasts of even greater violence. Locations where a Category 4 eye wall hit will see "power outages that will last weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months," the hurricane center said. It made landfall again Sunday afternoon on Marco Island, south of Naples, as a Category 3 storm.
More: Why water is receding from Florida shores as Irma approaches
How bad can the storm surge be?
Storm surge, the wall of sea water that roars ashore as a hurricane makes landfall can be "dangerous" and "life-threatening" for people who don't evacuate. Some areas may experience 15 feet of sea water pushed ashore from Irma, the hurricane center said. Storm-surge warnings were issued all the way from the Keys to north of Tampa.
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