Bahamas' beaches left bone dry after Hurricane Irma sucks up the water
With Hurricane Irma just starting to create her path of destruction in the US, social media users have been left baffled after footage shows the ocean essentially "disappearing".
Twitter user @Kaydi_K posted a video on the social media site and said "'I am in disbelief right now... This is Long Island, Bahamas and the ocean water is missing!!! That's as far as they see #HurricaneIrma".
The footage shows dry land as far as the eye can see as Irma passed just south of Long Island.
The person who took the video is seen walking along the dry ocean floor which is covered in large shells.
People were quick to freak out over the video, fearing the water was receding due to a tsunami but that wasn't it.
Washington Post's deputy weather editor and astmospheric scientist Angela Fritz said that "Hurricane Irma is so strong and its pressure is so low, it's sucking water from its surroundings into the core of the storm".
She called it the hurricane "bulge" - where water is drawn into the centre of the storm and the shape of the ocean is changed.
Fritz said the water won't rush back rapidly.
There are fears that the storm surge could flood entire communities with 15ft of water or more.
Irma is due to make landfall in the Florida Keys this weekend and then move north up the coast.
