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Article snippet: Straits where there were streets. Trees snapped like twigs. Howling winds and pounding rains punctuated by the sounds of alarms in the distance. As Hurricane Irma, continuing its destructive march after tearing through the Caribbean, roared across the Florida Keys early Sunday and drove northward, Times journalists and others in the storm’s path described in words, images and social posts what they were experiencing: the sights and sounds of a storm Florida hoped would never come. “The windows are shaking and the wind outside is blowing. Every few minutes, you can hear the faint sound of a tornado alarm coming from someone’s phone or computer. The trees outside are not bending as much as I thought they would. The sky is gray. What I am experiencing most right now is a really bad knot in my stomach.” — FRANCES ROBLES, a Times correspondent, in Miami at 8:12 a.m. — SIMON BREWER, a meteorologist and journalist, posted video on Twitter at 7:36 a.m. of a colleague, Justin Drake, holding a wind gauge on the Saddlebunch Keys east of Key West. “Powerful tree-bending winds tearing through South Miami.” — LIZETTE ALVAREZ, a Times correspondent, in Miami at 8:16 a.m. “Morning update: it sounds like someone is pressure cleaning my house. Been like this for hours.” — ISABELLA CUETO, editor in chief of the Miami Hurricane, the student newspaper at the University of Miami, in Coral Gables at 6:27 a.m. on Twitter. “It’s kinda eerie calm out. Winds not too bad. Like waitin... Link to the full article to read more