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Hurricane Katrina gains power in Gulf, moves west

Posted on: Saturday, 27 August 2005, 07:59 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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