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Tropical Storm Katrina threatening Florida

Posted on: Wednesday, 24 August 2005, 22:33 CDT

MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Katrina formed in the central Bahamas on Wednesday and was expected to gather strength over warm Atlantic waters and become a hurricane before hitting Florida's crowded southeast coast.

Katrina could reach the Miami area late on Thursday or early on Friday, dumping up to 12 inches of rain on southern Florida as it moved slowly across the state into the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

"I just don't see any reason why we shouldn't see some additional strengthening," hurricane center director Max Mayfield told Miami's WSVN television, pointing to warm waters between the Bahamas and Florida, which fuel tropical cyclones.

Some areas could get up to 20 inches of rain, said Jennifer Pralgo, a meteorologist at the hurricane center.

"It's going to soak us," Pralgo said.

With top winds of 50 mph (80 kph) by 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT), the 11th tropical storm of a busy Atlantic hurricane season was 60 miles southeast of Freeport on Grand Bahama island and 135 miles east of Florida.

It would become a minimal Category 1 hurricane, capable of damaging flimsy trailer homes and stripping leaves off trees, once its winds reached 74 mph (118 kph). At least one weather forecasting model called for Katrina to become much stronger than that before landfall, the hurricane center said.

U.S. crude prices shot to a new record of $67.32 a barrel, for October delivery, because of worries the storm could affect U.S. oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico.

Punished last season by four powerful hurricanes in a six-week period, Florida residents snapped up drinking water and spare batteries from stores. Some filled sandbags to protect homes from flooding, which appeared likely to be more of a threat than Katrina's winds.

HURRICANE WATCH

A hurricane warning was issued for a 170-mile (270-km) stretch of Florida's densely populated southern Atlantic Coast from Florida City to Vero Beach, alerting residents to expect hurricane-force winds within 24 hours. The area includes the cities of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach -- all of which were largely spared by last year's unusual series of storms.

Storm warnings and watches were also posted for part of the Florida Keys, Lake Okeechobee in central Florida and the central and northern Bahamas.

Katrina was moving westward at 8 mph (13 kph). Skies over the Bahamian capital of Nassau were gray and drizzly.

Water managers in Florida were pumping vigorously to lower the water level in their drainage canals so the storm run-off would have somewhere to go.

"We're in 24-hour-a-day operations to adjust the canal levels roughly a foot in most areas," said Randy Smith, a spokesman for the South Florida Water Management District. "We know they're going to fill back up."

The district has been pumping water out almost steadily since last September, when the last of the four 2004 hurricanes hit Florida with record levels of rain. The state had an unusually wet winter -- normally the dry season -- followed by twice the normal rainfall in June, Smith said.

Hurricane forecasters have predicted an unusually high number of storms this year because the Atlantic has swung into a multi-decade period of more intense storm activity.

Some climatologists say global warming is also likely to increase the average intensity of Atlantic hurricanes and their rainfall totals, but not necessarily affect their numbers.

Source: REUTERS

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