Hurricane Katrina Moves into Gulf of Mexico, Four Dead

MIAMI: Hurricane Katrina moved into the Gulf of Mexico on Friday after hammering Florida’s crowded southeast coast with hours of fierce winds and whipping rains, leaving 2 million people without power and killing four.

Katrina was downgraded earlier on Friday to a tropical storm as it churned across the swampy Everglades but strengthened back into a hurricane as it moved into the Gulf.

Katrina dumped up to 30.5 centimetres of rain after coming ashore just south of Fort Lauderdale on Thursday and then made a slow and punishing trek southwest across southern Florida, according to the US National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The hurricane flooded neighbourhoods and left streets carpeted with tree limbs and leaves.

By 7 am (1100 GMT) on Friday, Katrina was centred 85 kilometres north of Key West, Florida, and was moving west at 7 kph. Winds were near 120 kph and expected to strengthen, the centre said.

Three people were killed by falling trees during the storm, including a man who died when a tree brought down a power line onto his car, television station WFOR said. A fourth person died when his car struck a tree.

An overpass under construction collapsed west of Miami, blocking a major highway. Work crews were trying to clear the rubble but did not believe anyone was trapped underneath, the highway patrol said.

Most schools, businesses and government offices in southeast Florida were closed on Friday but aviation officials said they expected flights to resume by midday at the airports in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach County.

Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield warned Katrina would strengthen over the warm Gulf waters and could loop north to slam into the hurricane-scarred Florida Panhandle as a much more powerful hurricane.

The area was hit in July by Hurricane Dennis and last September by Hurricane Ivan.

Florida Power and Light Co, the main electricity company in the area, said more than 1 million customers, representing more than 2 million people, were without power and that number was bound to rise.

Katrina came ashore at about 7 pm EDT (2300 GMT) on Thursday between Hallandale Beach and North Miami Beach with sustained winds of 130 kph, the hurricane centre said.

Already punished

That still made it a minimal Category 1 hurricane on the five- step Saffir-Simpson scale.

Such hurricanes can damage flimsy trailer homes but rarely cause structural damage to buildings.

Emergency managers had urged people to leave vulnerable islands and mobile home parks, but did not order mandatory evacuations.

Punished last season by four powerful hurricanes in six weeks, Florida residents snapped up drinking water and spare batteries from stores.

Some filled sandbags to protect their homes from flooding, but few bothered to put up hurricane shutters.

Drivers lined up to fill their cars with gasoline before the storm hit and Florida Governor Jeb Bush urged South Floridians to conserve fuel.

Forecasters have predicted an unusually high number of storms this year because the Atlantic has swung into a period of more intense storm activity.

The June-through-November Atlantic hurricane season has seen 11 named storms, a record so early in the year.