CLOSE With thousands of people evacuating the coasts of Florida and Georgia ahead of Hurricane Irma, some Miami Beach residents are counting on their storm-resistant structures and staying. (Sept. 8) AP 
 
 This satellite image shows Hurricane Irma illuminating as the storm approaches Cuba and Florida late Sept. 8, 2017. (Photo: AP Images) 
 
 HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Hurricane Irma was downgraded to Category 4 status early Saturday as the storm slammed Cuba with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, the National Hurricane Center confirmed. 
 
 As of 5 a.m. ET Saturday, the eye of the storm was still moving over Cuba's Camaguey Archipelago, the National Hurricane Center said. The center of the storm was located about 245 miles south-southeast of Miami and was moving to the west at 12 mph, the National Hurricane Center added. 
 
 Authorities pleaded with residents of the Florida Keys to evacuate in the few remaining hours before Hurricane Irma’s arrival, warning that storm surges and high winds pose a particular risk to the string of low-lying sandbar islands tailing off Florida’s southern tip. Officials also scrambled to provide fuel for hundreds of thousands of residents trying to flee northward or to local shelters. 
 
 "This is a catastrophic storm the state has never seen before," Florida Gov. Rick Scott said as he made another plea for residents to heed evacuation warnings. “If you are planning to leave and do not leave tonight, you will have to ride out this extremely dangerous storm at your own risk," he said, according to The Associated Press. 
 
 Miami International Airport announced on Twitter that "there were no scheduled flights for Saturday and Sunday," adding that the last flight departed late Friday night. 
 
 Last flight has departed from MIA. There are no scheduled flights for Saturday and Sunday. Follow us for latest updates. #HurricaneIrma — Miami Int'l Airport (@iflymia) September 9, 2017 
 
 More: Hurricane Irma: Where is the Category 5 storm now 
 
 Related: Florida volunteers step in to prepare for Hurricane Irma 
 
 Current tracking shows the center of the storm moving near Cuba's north coast on Saturday, near the Florida Keys early Sunday morning, and then traveling near the southwest coast of Florida on Sunday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center said. 
 
 Forecasters warned that its hurricane-force winds were so wide they could reach from coast to coast, testing the nation’s third-largest state, which has undergone rapid development and more stringent hurricane-proof building codes in the last decade or so. 
 
 CLOSE People in Florida get into shelters ahead of hurricane Irma. Video provided by AFP Newslook 
 
 The storm has killed at least 20 people since roaring out of the open Atlantic and chewing through a string of Caribbean islands. Four deaths were reported in the British Virgin Islands, nine on the French Caribbean islands of St. Martin and St. Barts, four in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and one each on the islands of Anguilla, Barbuda and the Dutch side of St. Martin. 
 
 In the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Katia made landfall late Friday north of Tecolutla, Mexico and weakened to a tropical storm, with winds reaching 45 mph, AP reported. 
 
 Early Saturday, Hurricane Jose maintained its Category 4 status over the Atlantic, about 240 miles east-southeast of the Northern Leeward Islands, moving roughly westward at 14 mph with maximum sustained winds reaching 150 mph. 
 
 Rice and Stanglin reported from McLean, Va. Contributing: Associated Press 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2vUy9Ku ||||| Customers at a Home Depot in South Miami Dade buy building materials to secure their property in anticipation of Hurricane Irma early Friday, Sept. 8, 2017 in Miami, Fla. The National Hurricane Center... (Associated Press) 
 
 MIAMI (AP) — Hurricane Irma's relentless advance on Florida narrowed the window for residents to get to safety, with the latest forecasts shifting landfall southwest of the heavily populated Miami metro area. 
 
 The enormous storm regained Category 5 status late Friday as winds hit 160 mph (260 kph). Forecasters expect the storm to be near the Florida Keys on Sunday morning and approach the state's southwest coast by that afternoon. 
 
 In one of the country's largest evacuations, about 5.6 million people in Florida — more than one-quarter of the state's population — were ordered to leave, and another 540,000 were ordered out on the Georgia coast. Authorities opened hundreds of shelters for people who did not leave. Hotels as far away as Atlanta filled up with evacuees. 
 
 "If you are planning to leave and do not leave tonight, you will have to ride out this extremely dangerous storm at your own risk," Florida Gov. Rick Scott said. 
 
 The governor urged everybody in the Keys, where forecasters expect the storm to hit first, to get out. 
 
 Ray Scarborough and girlfriend Leah Etmanczyk left their home in Big Pine Key and fled north with her parents and three big dogs to stay with relatives in Orlando. Scarborough was 12 when Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992 and remembers lying on the floor in a hallway as the storm nearly ripped the roof off his house. 
 
 "They said this one is going to be bigger than Andrew. When they told me that, that's all I needed to hear," said Scarborough, now a 37-year-old boat captain. "That one tore everything apart." 
 
 Their house in the Keys, up on 6-foot (1.8-meter) stilts, has flooded before. 
 
 "This isn't out first rodeo. Andrew was a wicked storm. Wilma was a wicked storm. This one is going to be worse. Then we'll go home and rebuild, like we always do," said Etmanczyk, a 29-year-old teacher. 
 
 Forecasters adjusted the storm's potential track more toward the west coast of Florida, away from the Miami metropolitan area of 6 million people, meaning "a less costly, a less deadly storm," University of Miami researcher Brian McNoldy said. 
 
 Nevertheless, forecasters warned that its hurricane-force winds were so wide they could reach from coast to coast, testing the nation's third-largest state, which has undergone rapid development and more stringent hurricane-proof building codes in the last decade or so. 
 
 "This is a storm that will kill you if you don't get out of the way," National Hurricane Center meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said. "Everybody's going to feel this one." 
 
 Irma killed at least 20 people in the Caribbean and left thousands homeless as it devastated small resort islands known for their warm, turquoise water. 
 
 In Florida, gas shortages and gridlock plagued the evacuations, turning normally simple trips into tests of will. Parts of interstates 75 and 95 north were bumper-to-bumper, while very few cars drove in the southbound lanes. 
 
 "We're getting out of this state," said Manny Zuniga, who left his home in Miami at midnight Thursday to avoid the gridlock. "Irma is going to take all of Florida." 
 
 Despite driving overnight, he still took 12 hours to reach Orlando — a trip that normally takes four hours. From there, he and his wife, two children, two dogs and a ferret were headed to Arkansas. 
 
 Andrew razed Miami's suburbs with winds topping 165 mph (265 kph), damaging or blowing apart over 125,000 homes. Almost all mobile homes in its path were obliterated. The damage totaled $26 billion in Florida's most-populous areas. At least 40 people were killed in Florida. 
 
 Police in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Davie said a 57-year-old man who had been hired to install hurricane shutters Thursday morning died after falling about 15 feet (5 meters) from a ladder and hitting his head on a pool deck. The man's name wasn't immediately released. 
 
 With winds that peaked at 185 mph (300 kph), Irma was once the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the open Atlantic. 
 
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 Galofaro reported from Orlando. Associated Press writers Seth Borenstein in Washington; Gary Fineout in Tallahassee, Terrance Harris in Orlando and David Fischer in Miami contributed to this report. 
 
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– Florida is next: Hurricane Irma continued to batter Cuba early Saturday as it powered its way toward the US. In fact, South Florida already has begun to feel the outer bands, reports the Miami Herald. As of 5am Eastern, Irma was 245 miles southeast of Miami's coast and moving at 12mph with sustained winds of 155mph. That puts Irma back in Category 4 status after it briefly regained Category 5 strength late Friday. One small bright spot: The latest forecasts suggests its landfall will be southwest of the heavily populated Miami metro area when it eventually arrives, per the AP. Still, given the breadth of the storm, the entire Florida peninsula braced for a devastating hit. In one of the country's largest evacuations, about 5.6 million people in Florida—more than one-quarter of the state's population—were ordered to leave, and another 540,000 were ordered out on the Georgia coast. Authorities opened hundreds of shelters for people who did not leave. Hotels as far away as Atlanta filled up with evacuees. Meanwhile, Miami International Airport said it has no scheduled flights Saturday and Sunday, reports USA Today. So far, the death toll in the Caribbean from Irma is at 20. Elsewhere in the Atlantic, Hurricane Jose is a Category 4 hurricane, about 190 miles east-southeast of the Northern Leeward Islands. In the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Katia made landfall late Friday north of Tecolutla, Mexico, and weakened to a tropical storm. By early Saturday morning, it was 135 miles south of Tampico, Mexico, moving sluggishly at only 2 mph.