Battered, Florida braces for 2d hit
6 dead as Katrina strengthens, veers near Gulf Coast
MIAMI -- Utility crews scrambled to restore power to more than 1 million customers yesterday as Hurricane Katrina, blamed for six deaths and miles of flooded streets in South Florida, threatened the state with an encore visit.
Katrina was churning in the Gulf of Mexico and on a path to make landfall anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to Louisiana as early as Monday, possibly as a Category 4 storm.
''I'm so sick of this," said Pat Jackson, an interior decorator in Homestead. Her apartment building was flooded with several inches of water during Katrina's first pass across the state.
''It seems like every other week or month another one comes," she said.
Scenes of Katrina's impact were everywhere Friday: work crews sawing trees crippled by the winds; people canoeing through inundated streets; a
Florida has been hit by six hurricanes since last August, and the Panhandle was slammed by Hurricane Ivan last year, and then again by Hurricane Dennis this year, both Category 3 storms. Katrina was a Category 1 with 80 mile-per-hour winds when it hit Florida on Thursday.
Yesterday, Governor Jeb Bush urged residents in many of the same Panhandle areas to monitor the storm and make necessary preparations. If Katrina hit at Category 4 strength, as forecasters say it could, it would mean sustained winds topping 130 miles per hour.
Bush said he had asked for federal disaster assistance for Miami-Dade and Broward counties, where some residents said they were caught off guard by the gathering storm.
''Maybe we can get rid of the phrase 'minimal hurricane,' " state meteorologist Ben Nelson said yesterday. ''There is no such thing as a minimal hurricane."
The death toll grew to six, including three people killed by falling trees and two boaters who tried to ride out the storm in their crafts.
Authorities had said the toll was seven, but revised it to six after saying one death was not storm-related.
Risk modeling company AIR Worldwide estimated insured losses from Katrina's first landfall could approach $600 million.
Katrina, the second hurricane to hit Florida this year, grew from a disorganized 50-mile-per-hour tropical storm to one with 92 mile-per-hour wind gusts in a few hours Thursday.
It pummeled South Florida with blankets of rain and howling winds. Darkened skies lit up with popping power transformers, trees flew across streets, and rain swamped some neighborhoods with water up to waist high.
''We had wind coming from two directions. It sounded like a super wind tunnel," said Scott Resnick, who rode out the storm in Hallandale Beach.
As it moved out into the Gulf yesterday, Katrina became a Category 2 hurricane with 100 mile-per-hour winds and lashed the Florida Keys with strong outer bands that could dump 15 to 20 inches over the island chain.
Late last night, the storm was about 115 miles west of Key West. It was moving toward the west-southwest near 8 miles per hour. Its maximum sustained winds were near 105 miles per hour, still a Category 2 storm.
The National Hurricane Center said Katrina was expected to strengthen significantly over warm Gulf waters and warned residents from Florida to southeast Louisiana to be ready.
Hardware stores in the Panhandle reported increased sales of gasoline containers, lanterns, batteries, and tarps. Joe Crews at Meredith and Sons Lumber in Gulf Breeze said a steady stream of people came in to buy plywood Thursday.
''They're not anxious, but they are cautious," he said. ''A lot of them haven't gotten repaired since the last storms, and they want to try to take the steps to save what they've got left."
Katrina's first swipe across Florida left about 50 homes flooded in Homestead and 40 mobile homes damaged in Broward County.
At a 12-unit apartment complex in Davie, Beverly Johnson, 41, and her 7-year-old son used pots to hold all the dripping water after their roof caved in during the storm. ''Water came in and then the ceiling collapsed," she said. ''We were really shaken up last night."
Street flooding and debris strewn on the roads made many streets impassable, a situation made worse by power outages that affected street lights.
An overpass under construction in Miami-Dade County collapsed onto a highway. No injuries were reported, but the freeway, a main east-west thoroughfare, was closed for 20 blocks.
David Carter rode out the storm in his Coconut Grove home, listening as avocados were torn off branches and hit the structure.
''It sounded like tiny bowling balls hitting the top of the roof and rolling down," he said.
The hurricane hindered the Coast Guard's search early yesterday for a family of five who went out on their 24-foot pleasure boat. Edward and Tina Larsen and their three children had been stranded near their beached boat about 16 miles north of the tip of Florida. A Coast Guard helicopter spotted the family waving their arms for help on a mangrove island.
The family declined medical assistance and were taken to the Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers.
