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Wilma is 'extremely dangerous'
19/10/2005 10:06 - (SA)
Miami - Hurricane Wilma intensified into an "extremely dangerous category five hurricane" early on Wednesday, churning northward between western Cuba and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, the United States National Hurricane Centre said.
Wilma, the record-equalling 21st storm of the Atlantic season, strengthened to the highest level on the SaffirSimpson scale, the Miami-based centre said in a bulletin at 06:30.
"Data from a reconnaissance aircraft indicate that Hurricane Wilma has become an extremely dangerous category five hurricane," the centre said half an hour after it had announced the storm had strengthened to category four.
Winds at the centre of the storm were clocked at 281km/h, the centre said, adding that the pressure, 892 millibars, was the lowest observed in 2005 - and the lower the pressure, the stronger the storm.
Oil prices drop
The hurricane was located 270km south-southwest of Grand Cayman Islands and 640km of Cozumel, Mexico, and moving slowly west-northwest toward Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, but was expected to turn toward the northwest within 24 hours.
Wilma is expected to move into the Gulf of Mexico, then veer northeast toward Florida.
"All interests in the Florida Keys - the southernmost US islands - and the Florida peninsula should closely monitor the progress of Wilma," the hurricane centre said.
World oil prices dropped amid hopes that Wilma would not hit oil installations on the storm-weary US Gulf Coast.
Authorities in Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua and the Cayman Islands have all issued hurricane alerts.
Cuba has ordered 5 000 people evacuated from flood-prone areas on the storm's course, and Mexico put the tourist zones of Yucatan on alert.
Honduras also ordered preparations for evacuations as heavy rain started falling. Widespread flooding was reported in Jamaica from rainfall sparked by the hurricane.
Organisers of the MTV Latin Awards brought their annual ceremony at the Mexican resort of Cancun forward a day to Wednesday because of the storm.
Wilma is the 12th full-blown hurricane of the Atlantic season, and a series of them have left thousands dead in Central America and on the US Gulf Coast.
Florida has already been battered by hurricanes Dennis and Katrina this year, and the state's governor, Jeb Bush, brother of President George W Bush, was downcast at the prospect of a new hit.
"Why us?" he said. "How does a storm take a sharp 90 degree turn?"
A climate study released on Monday said the continental United States will face more extreme temperatures during the next century and worse rainfall along the Gulf Coast.
- AFP
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