Daily Mail, UK- Donald Trump's $200million 'winter White House' Mar-a-Lago is being evacuated as Hurricane Irma rampages towards the Florida coast after causing 'serious damage' to his mansion on St Martin.
Guests at the 62,500-square foot golf course and resort are being told to leave, along with the rest of Palm Beach, as winds of 155mph make their way towards the US east coast.
And Hurricane Irma is likely to test a longtime boast from Mar-a-Lago staff that it withstand any storm.
The 3-acre (1.2 hectare) Palm Beach estate is quite exposed to tropical weather, bisecting a narrow barrier island, flanked by the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean. But the mansion's walls are 3-feet (1 meter) thick, anchored by steel and concrete beams embedded into coral rock.
'It's the safest place in the world for a hurricane,' said Anthony Senecal, Trump's longtime butler and Mar-a-Lago's unofficial historian, in an interview with The Associated Press last year.
Jeff Masters, director of the Weather Underground forecasting service, said Thursday that the biggest threat to Mar-a-Lago won't be Irma's winds, which could top 140 mph (225 kph) when it reaches Palm Beach. Instead, it will be storm surge, which he said could reach 8 feet (2.4 meters) in a worst-case scenario.
No comments:
Post a Comment