Hurricane Wilma claims 13
2005-10-20 08:07
San Pedro Sula - Hurricane Wilma, once the most intense storm the Americas have ever seen, blasted Caribbean coastlines on Wednesday and threatened to slam into Cancun and southern Florida. With 13 people already dead, alarmed officials began evacuations from Honduras to the Florida Keys.
Local officials ordered visitors out of the Keys on Wednesday even as thousands of others were evacuated from low-lying areas in a 1 000km swath covering Cuba, Belize, Honduras, Jamaica, Haiti and the Cayman Islands.
"We are closely monitoring what is an extremely dangerous storm," said Scott McClellan, spokesperson for President George W Bush, who had been accused of a slow response to Hurricane Katrina. "People should take this hurricane very seriously."
At 23:00, Wilma's sustained winds fell slightly to 250km/h, but forecasters said it could strengthen again.
Could strengthen again
Wilma was centred 380km southeast of Mexico's Cozumel Island, and was moving west-northwest.
Countries across the region prepared for the worst. Much of Central America was still recovering from Hurricane Stan, which left more than 1 500 people dead or missing. Americans were still mourning 1 200 Gulf Coast victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The storm was on a curving course that would carry it through the narrow channel between Cuba and Mexico on Friday, possibly within a few miles of Cancun and Cozumel.
In the coastal state of Quintana Roo - which includes Cancun - officials ordered the evacuation of four low-lying islands, including the popular tourist destination of Isla Mujeres, offshore from Cancun.
"This is one of those cases where we have a tremendous amount of uncertainty," said Max Mayfield, director of the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami, Florida. Referring to Wilma's explosive two-day growth from tropical storm to a "potentially catastrophic" category five hurricane, Mayfield said "this is one of the most perplexing storms we have had to deal with" this year.
On Wednesday, tourists packed Cancun's airport even though skies were still partly sunny, looking for flights home or to other resorts.
Four fishermen were reported missing at sea and about 500 US and European tourists were moved to safe locations at hotels on the Bay Islands.
The head of Haiti's civil protection agency, Maria Alta Jean-Baptiste, said that at least 12 people had died in rain and landslides since Monday. At least 2 000 Haitian families had been forced from flooded homes.
Heavy rains in the island's eastern province of Granma forced the evacuations of more than 1 000 people.
A military helicopter plucked 19 people from their rooftops in Jamaica on Tuesday.
Forecasters said Wilma was stronger than the devastating Labour Day hurricane that hit the Florida Keys in 1935, the strongest Atlantic hurricane to make landfall on record.
Although the storm was not expected to approach Florida until the weekend, officials ordered visitors to leave the Florida Keys. Some residents began buying water, canned food and other emergency supplies.
- AP