MIAMI: Three people in Florida, including a sheriff's deputy, have been killed in car crashes as Hurricane Irma closed in with high winds and lashing rain, officials said on Sunday.
Deputy Julie Bridges, 42, died in a head-on collision in Hardee County, east of Sarasota, early on Sunday, Sheriff Arnold Lanier told AFP.
"She had been working in a shelter all night, and ran home to get some supplies," when the crash occurred at 6:45 am (1045 GMT), he said.
The roads were "wet and windy" he added, noting that Bridges was the mother of a young son and had worked for the sheriff's department for 13 years.
The other driver, a corrections officer on his way to work in a private vehicle, was also killed, Lanier said.
The third fatality was a man who died on Saturday near Key West when his truck slammed into a tree, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
The truck was carrying a generator, ABC News reported.
The exact cause of the crash was not immediately known.