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CUBA
NEWS
The
Miami Herald
Killer storm's targets include Florida
After killing at least
12 in Grenada, ferocious Hurricane Ivan
-- with winds up to 145 mph -- threatened
Jamaica, Cuba and storm-weary Florida.
By Martin Merzer, mmerzer@herald.com.
Posted on Thu, Sep. 09, 2004.
Already a killer storm that pulverized
Grenada, Hurricane Ivan intensified as it
headed toward Jamaica and Cuba -- and a
deepening sense of gloom settled Wednesday
night on hurricane forecasters and emergency
managers in Florida.
Unbelievably, the state was imperiled by
another major hurricane.
By Wednesday night, Ivan was an extremely
dangerous Category 4 hurricane with winds
of 145 mph. Forecasters said it could grow
into a rare Category 5 monster -- like Andrew
-- with winds higher than 155 mph. It killed
at least 12 people in Grenada and proved
deadly in Tobago and Venezuela.
Ivan could be near the Florida Keys and
Southwest Florida by Sunday night or Monday
morning, forecasters said. Virtually every
computerized forecast model had it making
landfall next week somewhere in the storm-weary
state. South Florida remained deeply embedded
in the cone of probability.
''It looks like we're going to have to
go through the drill again,'' said Max Mayfield,
director of the National Hurricane Center
in West Miami-Dade County. "Would someone
please turn off the hurricane switch?''
In the Keys, emergency managers began planning
a possible mass evacuation, which might
include an airlift of hospital patients
out of the island chain.
With only one road leading to safety, officials
said they would need at least 36 hours to
get everyone out of the way of a Category
4 hurricane. The forecast track Wednesday
night looked increasingly discouraging for
the Keys. A decision might come today.
''This could be the third time I have
to close a community,'' said Billy Wagner
Sr., Monroe County's senior director of
emergency management. "They're coming
at us from every direction.''
Evacuations of varying degrees were ordered
in the Keys in recent weeks for hurricanes
Charley and Frances. Around the state, tens
of thousands of people are still trying
to recover from those natural disasters
-- and now another seems to be on the way.
Three hurricanes have not pummeled Florida
in the same year since 1964 -- and Ivan
could be the mightiest of the three.
Its ferocious eye blasted Grenada with
winds so strong Tuesday they flattened concrete
houses, including the home of Prime Minister
Keith Mitchell. ''We are terribly devastated
here in Grenada,'' Mitchell said in a radio
broadcast. "It's beyond any imagination.''
Ivan also damaged 221 homes in Barbados
and left many residents without water and
electricity, according to officials at the
Caribbean disaster agency in Barbados. Other
islands, such as St. Lucia, sustained less
severe damage.
As the storm moved on, forecasters warned
of flooding rains in Haiti and the Dominican
Republic from Ivan's outlying but potent
squalls. Hurricane watches and warnings
were in place in portions of those countries
and Venezuela and Colombia.
But the worst was still ahead -- the heavily
populated islands of Jamaica and Cuba and
the state of Florida.
Forecasters predicted that Ivan would strike
Jamaica on Friday and Cuba on Sunday, passing
over or close to Havana.
Though intensity is difficult to predict,
in both cases Ivan was expected to have
winds of about 145 mph at landfall -- a
Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane
scale, capable of inflicting death and catastrophic
damage.
The most recent forecast tracks suggested
a path toward Florida's Gulf Coast, but
forecasters said a direct strike on South
Florida was possible. They said it was too
early to achieve that degree of precision
concerning where Ivan would reach the mainland.
''It's going to be too close for comfort,''
forecaster Jack Beven said.
That message was heard loud and clear.
At a Holiday Inn near Miami International
Airport, where many stranded travelers waited
out Frances last week, this was displayed
on an electric sign: "IVAN GO AWAY''
Herald staff writers Jennifer Babson
and Michael A.W. Ottey contributed to this
report.
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