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Hurricane Katrina pummels south Florida

Posted on: Thursday, 25 August 2005, 22:07 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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