MOBILE, Alabama (16 Sep 2004) -- Hurricane Ivan slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast early on Thursday with devastating winds and pounding waves that ripped homes apart, flooded deep inland and spawned tornadoes that killed at least two people. Ivan's eye moved ashore at about 2 a.m. CDT (3 a.m. EDT) near Gulf Shores, Alabama, east of New Orleans and just west of Florida's panhandle, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. But the wrath of the Texas-sized storm was felt over a huge stretch of the coast and inland in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida. Thousands of people huddled in shelters and hundreds of thousands were left without power. "Ivan is here," said Colette Boehm, spokeswoman for emergency management in Baldwin County, on the east side of Mobile Bay in Alabama. "We are getting hurricane-force winds and they're still picking up. We have reports of rising water ... and of trees down and roofs coming off." Ivan's top sustained winds ebbed slightly to 130 miles per hour just before its eye hit land, but it was a major hurricane capable of serious damage. Once the sixth most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record, Ivan had killed 68 people during its rampage through the Caribbean. Towering waves, torrential rainfall and winds capable of splintering mobile homes were not the only danger. At least two people died in northwest Florida when around five tornadoes touched down and damaged or destroyed up to 70 buildings, including a fire station, police said. Authorities said it would be hours before they could truly assess the extent of the damages, and look for anyone left injured or stranded. Tens of thousands of residents had fled the coast before Ivan's arrival. In Mobile, Alabama -- a city of 200,000 lashed for hours with torrential rains and vicious winds -- Mayor Mike Dow had sent his own family north. "I never play with these things. I didn't think twice about getting them out of here," he said. FIRE AND FLOODS Ivan was expected to submerge downtown areas of the 300-year-old city founded by the French, and local television stations showed a few buildings on fire. | | Pensacola, Florida, east of Mobile, was pounded by huge waves, torrential rains and high winds. Power lines were down and buildings surrounded by water. CNN reported that a hospital in the city was hit by a tornado. New Orleans, a city of 1.5 million people renowned for parties and jazz bars but sitting precariously below sea level, escaped the worst as Ivan stayed to the east. Experts said Ivan could cause up to $10 billion in insured losses in the United States on top of the $1 billion to $2 billion in losses in the Caribbean. Hurricanes Charley and Frances caused a collective $11 billion in insured damages after tearing through Florida in the past four weeks. Those losses do not reflect lost revenues for Florida's and the Gulf Coast's tourism industries. Nor do they include the impacts of closed oil rigs and refineries along the Gulf Coast, source of a quarter of U.S. oil and natural gas production. At 4 a.m. CDT/5 a.m. EDT, Ivan's eye was inland, about 40 miles northwest of Pensacola, near latitude 30.9 north and longitude 87.7 west, and moving slightly east of north near 14 miles per hour, forecasters said. Its top sustained winds had decreased to 115 mph and Ivan was expected to gradually continue to weaken as it moved over land, bearing up to 15 inches of rain. The hurricane center warned that Ivan could cause major flooding over the southeastern United States in the coming days. At times during its passage through the Caribbean, Ivan, with sustained winds of 165 mph, had been a rare top-level Category 5 storm on forecasters' five-level Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity. As Ivan lashed northwestern Florida, the storm-weary state kept a nervous eye on the newest feature of an unusually busy Atlantic hurricane season. Tropical Storm Jeanne dumped up to 24 inches of rain on the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico on Wednesday night and could also become a hurricane as it moved west-northwest toward the Dominican Republic, the hurricane center said. SOURCE - Reuters |
