Hurricane Katrina drenches, pummels Florida

By Jane Sutton and Michael Christie

MIAMI (Reuters) – Hurricane Katrina drenched and battered
Florida’s densely populated southeast coast on Thursday as it
knocked down trees, left hundreds of thousands without
electricity and caused at least two deaths.

The core of the wet but not overly powerful storm hit just
south of the Fort Lauderdale area about 7 p.m. (2300 GMT),
dumping up to 10 inches of rain on southern Florida as it began
moving slowly across the state toward the Gulf of Mexico, the
U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

A 25-year-old man was killed after a tree brought down
power cables on his car in Fort Lauderdale, WFOR television
reported. Another person was also killed by a falling tree, the
channel said.

The authorities said heavy rainfall could well be the
greatest threat from Katrina.

“The entire south part of the peninsula is at risk for
flooding,” said Ed Rappaport, the center’s deputy director.

Some areas could get up to 15 inches of rain, the hurricane
center said.

Skies darkened, rain poured down in sheets and sharp gusts
stripped branches off trees, some flying into power lines.
Streets began to flood and emergency managers urged people to
stay inside. Florida Power and Light, the main electricity
company in the area, said about 380,000 customers, representing
more than 700,000 people, were without power.

“We’ve got roughly 4 to 6 million people right now who are
experiencing hurricane or tropical storm-force winds,” said
Craig Fugate, Florida’s director of emergency management.

Katrina made landfall between Hallandale Beach and North
Miami Beach with sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph) and
reported gusts of up to 92 mph (150 kph), the hurricane center
said.

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

The storm was expected to weaken as it moved slowly
westward over land. But hurricane center director Max Mayfield
warned that Katrina was likely to strengthen again over Gulf
waters and could slam into the Florida Panhandle as an even
stronger hurricane early next week.

STOCKING UP

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 try 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 Gov. Jeb Bush urged South Floridians
to conserve fuel.

“We start with a situation of very low inventories because
gas companies are operating on very low margins in terms of
their supply. That’s bad when you combine that with increases
in demand,” he said. “You’re going to have isolated or spotted
areas where there will be shortages.”

He said Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale got a shipment
of 20 million gallons (90 million liters) of gasoline, which
could be distributed after the storm passes.

Schools and businesses in southeast Florida closed and
cruise lines rerouted their ships as the seaports shut down.

Party planners on Miami Beach canceled poolside bashes that
had been organized for celebrities and fans in town for the MTV
Video Music Awards. Forecasters expected the skies to clear in
time for the awards show on Sunday.

In the Gulf of Mexico, Katrina’s projected path would make
it miss oil and natural gas rigs, but it was expected to
inflict more misery on the Panhandle region pummeled by
Hurricane Dennis in July and Hurricane Ivan last year.

White House spokesman Trent Duffy said President George W.
Bush and federal authorities were ready to provide relief.

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.