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Hurricane Irma: Woman forced to deliver her own baby during storm

Click to play video: 'Hurricane Irma: Police, fire crews unable to respond to emergency calls due to storm'
Hurricane Irma: Police, fire crews unable to respond to emergency calls due to storm
WATCH ABOVE: Police, fire crews unable to respond to emergency calls due to storm – Sep 10, 2017

Doctors were forced to talk a Florida woman through delivering her baby at home while Hurricane Irma‘s outer bands lashed Miami.

LIVE UPDATES: Tracking Hurricane Irma’s path

The City of Miami said on its Twitter account early Sunday that firefighters couldn’t respond in time to the woman in the Little Haiti neighbourhood. So doctors from Jackson Health System talked her through the birth of the baby girl at home.

Authorities say firefighters were able to make it to the woman Sunday morning and take her to the hospital after the girl was born.

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Miami-Dade fire spokeswoman Erika Benitez said the fire department is responding to calls on a case-by-case basis as strong winds and rain lash the area. They are encouraging residents to stay inside because of downed power lines and debris.

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READ MORE: Hurricane Irma northern eyewall reaches lower Florida Keys

Ahead of the storm, officials in Florida had ordered a total of 6.3 million people, or about a third of the state’s population, to evacuate.

But some state residents planned to ride out the storm in their homes. Midway up the state’s Gulf Coast in Clearwater, Sarah Griffin said she planned to hunker down in a closet in her boarded-up concrete house.

“You’ve just got to have plenty of beer, Captain Morgan, vodka, (and) you’ll get through,” said Griffin, 52.

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READ MORE: Disney World lets in its last guests before Hurricane Irma is set to hit

The NHC has put out a hurricane warning and a tropical storm warning stretching through almost all of Florida into Georgia and South Carolina, home to more than 20 million people.

Irma comes just days after Hurricane Harvey dumped record-setting rain in Texas, causing unprecedented flooding, killing at least 60 people and leaving an estimated $180 billion in property damage in its wake. Almost three months remain in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs through November.

— With files from Reuters

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