Hurricane Katrina pummels south Florida

By Jane Sutton and Michael Christie

MIAMI (Reuters) – Hurricane Katrina battered Florida’s
densely populated southeast coast with high winds and drenching
rain on Thursday as it knocked down trees, left 2 million
people without power and caused at least two deaths.

The core of what was supposed to be a minimal hurricane but
which nevertheless delivered a furious punch hit just south of
the Fort Lauderdale area about 7 p.m. (2300 GMT) and then cut
southwest through some of the most crowded parts of Miami-Dade,
the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The storm dumped up to 12 inches of rain as it began moving
slowly across south Florida toward the Gulf of Mexico, and
bands of fierce gale-force winds uprooted trees from soggy
soil, howled through gaps under doors and brought down power
lines.

A 25-year-old man was killed after a tree fell on his car
in Fort Lauderdale, and another man died in Plantation when a
tree fell on him outside his home, said Broward County public
information officer Dennis Myers. WFOR television said the
first man died when the tree brought a power line down onto his
car.

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

“I don’t want to minimize that wind either. We just had a
gust to 86 miles (138 kph) an hour at the hurricane center a
few minutes. We’ve had two deaths from trees falling on people
up in Broward County. This is not over even though the center
of the hurricane is moving (west) of here,” hurricane center
director Max Mayfield told CNN.

“This is going to be a long night for Miami-Dade and
Broward counties.”

Some areas could get up to 15 inches of rain, the hurricane
center said, and Miami-Dade authorities warned residents of
possible flash floods.

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.

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. Three hours later as it moved west of Miami, the winds
were still measured at 80 mph, the 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 had 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 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.

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.