Hurricane Ivan on Wednesday had the northern United States Gulf Coast in its sights, its howling winds and lethal surf sending thousands scrambling out of its way, fearing the worst after it punished Cuba and killed more than 70 people across the Caribbean.
Tens of thousands of people choked the roads and hundreds of emergency workers and electricity-company crews headed to threatened areas for a swift response to the expected havoc along about 800km of US coastline, as the powerful storm targeted western Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
The ferocious storm was expected to make landfall early on Thursday somewhere between New Orleans, Louisiana, and Pensacola, Florida, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre.
Because Ivan’s powerful winds reach 420km from the centre of the hurricane, the landfall will affect a large swath of land.
If the storm veers off its predicted track, it could also hit parts of Florida, a south-eastern US state still mopping up from the ravages wrought by hurricanes Charley and Frances over the past month.
At 9am GMT, Ivan’s centre was about 355km south-southeast of the Mississippi river.
It lost some strength and was downgraded a notch after squeezing past the western tip of Cuba and Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula on Monday, but was still packing ferocious winds of 225kph and could regain category-five strength, forecasters said.
It was expected to make landfall as a major hurricane — at least a category three, the centre said.
As the mayor of low-lying New Orleans urged residents to seek shelter on higher ground, officials recalled that the far less powerful Hurricane Betsy had killed 110 people and left the city under more than 2m of water in 1965.
Schools shut down and residents along the threatened areas boarded up their homes and bought emergency supplies, while military bases deployed personnel, planes and ships to safety.
The port of New Orleans was closed through at least Wednesday, said Cynthia Swain, director of safety and security for the port.
“Depending on what the storm does will determine what we do on Thursday,” she said.
Florida, Louisiana and Alabama were under a state of emergency and Mississippi joined them in ordering massive evacuations as Ivan roared toward the US coast after wreaking havoc across the Caribbean, from Grenada to Cuba.
Interstate 10, the main east-west highway leading away from the threatened areas, was packed bumper-to-bumper with vehicles for more than 300km toward Tallahassee, the capital of Florida. Only emergency vehicles headed into Ivan’s predicted path.
Ivan’s latest rampage was in western Cuba, where it raged for three hours late on Monday. Hundreds of homes, fishing and farm installations were damaged as roofs were torn off, trees were felled and mudslides cut off some communities.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in Cuba, which had lost five lives to Hurricane Charley last month, but authorities said it was too early to assess damage from the storm.
In the Cayman Islands, which were hit Sunday, dozens of people were missing, and the British territory remained under a state of emergency.
The tiny spice island of Grenada was the worst hit by Ivan, with at least 37 people killed last week, and as many as 90% of all buildings damaged or destroyed, officials said.
In Jamaica, police put the death toll at 21 after powerful winds and heavy rain from Ivan tore down houses, felled trees and destroyed roads in the nation of 2,7-million.
The hurricane was also blamed for five deaths in Venezuela, four in the Dominican Republic, three in Haiti and one in Tobago.
Aid for the devastated nations started pouring, with the European Commission announcing it was sending €1,5-million and Canada pledging 500 000 Canadian dollars.
Caribbean leaders were to hammer out a regional disaster plan for hurricane-hit Grenada and Jamaica at an emergency meeting on Wednesday in Trinidad.
But as the assistance was on its way, weary Caribbean residents cast a wary eye at Tropical Storm Jeanne, which was gaining strength as it headed for the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, and was expected to become a hurricane by Wednesday.
Storm warnings also were in place for the Dominican Republic, British Virgin Islands and St Kitts and Nevis. — AFP
Ivan takes it all