At least 10 dead in Cuba as Irma wreaks havoc: Official

"The unfortunate loss of 10 human lives has been reported so far," in several parts of the island, including Havana, the agency said in a statement.

The civil defence said the causes of the deaths ranged from electrocution to drowning, building collapse and a balcony falling on a bus.

Some of the victims had ignored instructions to evacuate, it said.

Irma hammered Cuba with winds up to 150 kilometers (93 miles) per hour in Havana, with an unprecedented storm surge swamping parts of the capital and leaving many people waist- deep in water.

The storm "seriously" damaged the center of the island with winds up to 256 kilometers per hour, according to Cuban state media.

Authorities said they evacuated more than a million people overall as a precaution.

The hurricane killed at least 25 people earlier on its path across the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, Irma weakened to a tropical storm Monday morning and is expected to further weaken by Tuesday to a tropical depression. But this storm, while wounded, is still dangerous. Both storm surge and inland flooding, which cause the majority of deaths in tropical cyclones, remain a risk over the Southeast states.

At 11 am, Irma was centered 70 miles east of Tallahassee, with peak winds of 65 mph. It was plowing to the north-northwest at 17 mph toward southwest Georgia.

n addition to the flood risk over the Southeast states, tropical-storm-force winds and hurricane-force gusts were possible over a large area from northern Florida through eastern Alabama, much of Georgia, and southeast South Carolina. These winds could bring down trees and cause power outages.

Tornadoes could also spin up in coastal areas from northeast Georgia to southeast South Carolina where a tornado watch was in effect.

Water levels will continue to be elevated above normally dry land along parts of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts from central Florida to coastal South Carolina. A storm surge warning extended over these areas, and the Hurricane Center warned Monday "life-threatening" coastal inundation remained possible. In areas where peak surge coincided with high tide, water levels were predicted to rise as much as 4 to 6 feet above normally dry land from the northeast Florida coast to the central South Carolina coast on the storm's Atlantic side, and from near Clearwater, Fla. to the state's Big Bend area.

Rain covered the entire state of Georgia and all but the northeastern-most part of South Carolina Monday morning. In many areas, the rain was falling heavily. "Intense rainfall rates of 2 inches or more per hour is leading to flash flooding and rapid rises on creeks, streams, and rivers," the National Hurricane Center said. Flood warnings covered much of eastern Georgia and extreme northeast Florida Monday morning.

The heaviest rainfall is expected to focus over southern and central Georgia and southern South Carolina on Monday.