Hurricane Katrina gains power in Gulf, moves west

By Jane Sutton

MIAMI (Reuters) – Hurricane Katrina gained power over warm
Gulf of Mexico waters and revved up for a second and
potentially more deadly assault on the U.S. coast after a slow
and punishing trek across southern Florida that killed seven
people.

By 8 a.m. (12000 GMT) on Saturday, the hurricane was 430
miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, with
winds near 115 mph (185 kph).

The storm was larger and more powerful than when it hit
Florida’s southeast coast on Thursday and was expected to swing
gradually west-northwest, the National Hurricane Center in
Miami said.

The projected path could see it come ashore anywhere
between the storm-scarred Florida Panhandle and the Louisiana
coast west of the low-lying and vulnerable city of New Orleans.
U.S. oil and gas rigs are potentially in its path.

Computer models pointed to a more westerly track, putting
Katrina ashore on Monday near the Louisiana-Mississippi border.

“That’s bad news for New Orleans and better news for us,”
said Florida’s top meteorologist, Ben Nelson.

Katrina posed a great risk of flooding all along the
northern Gulf coast. Some projections foresaw it becoming a
Category 4 storm on the five step Saffir-Simpson scale by
Monday — a potentially catastrophic hurricane with 131
mph-plus (210 kph-plus) winds capable of causing widespread
damage.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said residents in the Florida
Panhandle would be ready, even as many of them had not yet been
able to fully repair their homes after being struck by
Hurricane Dennis last month or Hurricane Ivan last September.

Katrina’s torturous path across the Miami area after coming
ashore late Thursday just south of Fort Lauderdale was a timely
reminder for Florida residents that meteorologists have warned
this hurricane season could be unusually active.

Insured losses from Katrina’s first strike were estimated
at between $600 million and $2 billion by independent
forecasting firms — little compared to the estimated $45
billion in total damages caused in 2004 by four powerful
hurricanes that struck Florida in a six-week period.

But Katrina left entire south Florida neighborhoods
thigh-deep in water and toppled thousands of trees.

POWER OUT

Boats tore loose from their moorings, small aircraft were
flipped on their backs and power lines brought down across the
area, leaving 1.45 million customers, or nearly 3 million
people, without electricity at the storm’s peak.

By Saturday, power had been restored to about 40 percent,
according to Florida Power & Light Co., the main electricity
company in the area. Around 867,000 customers, or roughly 1.7
million people, were still sweltering in the summer heat
without power.

Seven people were killed by the storm, police said. Many
were struck by falling trees and two died aboard the boats they
had lived on, anchored off Miami.

Awash under at least 2 feet of floodwater, Key West
experienced its fifth wettest day on record since the late
1870s, weather forecasters said.

“Who knows what we’re going to find when this wind stops,”
U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Phil Heyl told local radio after his
vessel rescued a man in Key West harbor who was adrift in a
dinghy.