Looks like Cuba, "Took one for the team", and took something out of it.
Boy did it. Cuba took a big arse beating for mainland Florida. I remember reading or hearing experts who can read the models saying Cuba would not weaken Irma that much, but it did. Better that it left Cuba a cat 3 vs cat 4/5 because we knew it would gain some steam once it moved away from Cuba’s coastline. It left Cuba’s coast with 125 mph winds a cat 3 and ramped up to 135 mph cat 4, and hit mainland Florida as a cat 3. Could have been a lot worse for Florida.
It’s been over a decade since Florida was hit with a major hurricane with hurricane Wilma at a cat 3, but Irma is something Florida can handle. A cat 5 at 150 to 165 mph winds would have been a different story all together.
I also think the storm surges will be bad but not as bad as it would have been if Irma rode that western coastline pulling all that water out and then back in again.