Charley Targets Fla. With 145 Mph Winds

TAMPA, Fla. – Hurricane Charley strengthened to a dangerous Category 4 storm packing 145 mph winds bearing down on Florida’s west coast Friday.

State officials urged almost 2 million people to evacuate, but the storm path moved slightly south of the heavily populated Tampa Bay region to the booming areas of Sarasota and Charlotte counties, meteorologist Daniel Brown said.

An expected massive storm surge could devastate coastal and low-lying areas in the Sarasota, Port Charlotte, Tampa and St. Petersburg, where many streets were deserted as workers were told to stay home or head to shelters.

If it remains at its current strength, Charley would be the strongest hurricane since the Category 5 Andrew hit south of Miami in 1992.

By noon, Charley’s outer bands were already dropping rain on southwestern Florida, a few hours after bringing occasionally heavy wind and rain to the lower Keys as the storm’s center passed to the west. Only minor damage was immediately reported.

Charley claimed at least three lives in Cuba earlier Friday in its sprint across the country earlier Friday, its top civil defense official said.

Lt. Col. Domingo Carretero reported the casualties in a live early afternoon report on state-run television, but offered no specifics except to say the three deaths occurred in Havana province, which rings the capital.

The storm on Thursday killed a farmer in Jamaica.

Evacuation shelters in Florida were filling to capacity Friday morning, as residents and tourists looked for somewhere safe to ride out the storm. This potentially could be the largest evacuation in state history, officials said.

Gov. Jeb Bush said he had sought a federal disaster declaration from President Bush, his brother, and urged residents to stay wherever they were.

“This is not the time to be getting on the interstate. It is time to seek a safe place to be with family and friends inside of your region,” the governor said.

A shelter at Sickles High School in northwestern Tampa was full to its capacity of 500 at the breakfast hour. Windows had been reinforced with screens and tarps to prepare for the storm.

“I’m scared that we’re going to go home and nothing is going to be there,” 20-year-old Amanda Kellogg said as she played blackjack with four friends, their suitcases, bedding and other possessions piled beside them.

The main airports in Tampa and Sarasota closed at noon, and Tampa’s Busch Gardens and Adventure Island theme parks were closed. In the Orlando area, Walt Disney World closed early, while Universal Orlando and SeaWorld Orlando planned to close their parks in the early afternoon.

About 1,000 Florida National Guard members have been activated, and another 1,000 were being called up.

Earlier, the storm roared across Cuba, ripping apart roofs, downing power lines and yanking up huge palm trees. High wind and heavy rain battered Havana, home to 2.2 million people. There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage, but power that had shut down for safety reasons was still not restored more than eight hours later.

Chunks of corrugated roof were ripped from the roof of Marlen Perez’s modest home.

“The wind was howling and I was screaming, ‘Oh my God, oh my God.’ Pieces of the roof were falling everywhere,” said Perez, 39. “… I thought the walls were falling down.”

Before reaching Cuba, Charley drenched Jamaica, where one man died.

The hurricane was arriving in Florida a day after Tropical Storm Bonnie came ashore in the state’s Panhandle and quickly moved north. Three people, including a child, were killed and 29 injured Friday when a tornado hit a North Carolina trailer park.

About 6.5 million of Florida’s 17 million residents were in Charley’s projected path, including about 700,000 elderly people, officials said.

At 1 p.m. Friday, the storm was 70 miles south-southwest of Fort Myers, moving north-northeast at about 20 mph. It was expected to make landfall between 4 and 7 p.m., meteorologists said. Hurricane force wind extended outward 30 miles from the eye; tropical storm force wind went out 105 miles. Gusts were measured at 58 mph in the lower Keys.

All the west coast of Florida’s peninsula was under a hurricane warning, as was the lower Florida Keys. Tropical storm watches and warnings extended from the middle Keys to Oregon Inlet, N.C.

About 1.9 million people from the Florida Keys north through the west coast were advised to evacuate, although only 1.1 million to 1.5 million were expected to do so before the storm hit, said Kristy Campbell, spokeswoman at the state emergency management center.

After Florida, Charley was expected to head north along Georgia’s coast, arriving in South Carolina around midday Saturday.

Campers were asked Friday to leave Georgia’s Cumberland Island, and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford called Friday for a voluntary evacuation of low-lying areas along his state’s southern coast.

The hurricane’s predicted track could take the storm into lush fields of corn, cotton and soybeans, as well as large cattle, poultry and hog farms from Florida into Virginia. Vegetable, greenhouse and citrus growers in Florida faced the first impact.

Florida’s evacuation request was its biggest since 1999, when Hurricane Floyd prompted an order for a record 1.3 million people to evacuate the state’s east coast. Charley’s evacuation could break that record, said Craig Fugate, the state’s emergency management director.

Most evacuations were in the counties of Hillsborough, which contains Tampa, and Pinellas, a peninsula that contains St. Petersburg. All residents of MacDill Air Force Base, on another peninsula in Tampa Bay, were ordered out with only essential personnel remaining. MacDill is home to U.S. Central Command, the nerve center of the war in Iraq.

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On the Net:

National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov