久久亚洲国产成人影院-久久亚洲国产的中文-久久亚洲国产高清-久久亚洲国产精品-亚洲图片偷拍自拍-亚洲图色视频

  Home>News Center>World
         
 

Hurricane Charley menaces Cuba, Floridians flee
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-08-13 10:47

Hurricane Charley brought heavy rain to Cuba on Thursday and more than half a million Americans on Florida's coast were told to evacuate beachfront homes, trailer parks and islands lying in the storm's path. 

Charley's winds rose to 105 mph as it passed the Isle of Youth, south of the Cuban mainland, heading toward the Havana area and the fragile Florida Keys island chain beyond.

Weather forecasters said it could strengthen to become a "major" hurricane, with devastating power, overnight.


The wind from Tropical Storm Bonnie generates waves on the beach at St. George Island, Fla. [AP]
In western Florida's heavily populated St. Petersburg-Tampa region, more than 600,000 people were told to leave seaside communities, mobile homes and low-lying areas in advance of Charley's arrival on Friday, the Florida emergency management office said.

Charley had "the potential to be the one we've all been warning about," Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told reporters in the state capital, Tallahassee. "If people are told to evacuate they should take it seriously," he said.

The governor, brother of US President Bush, said 2 million people could be affected as Charley pounds the tourist resort island of Key West and then curves into Florida's west coast.

Cuban authorities also evacuated thousands of people.

"The news is not good. ... By the looks of it we will have to face a category three hurricane," Cuban weather forecaster Jose Rubiera said in a television broadcast, referring to the five-category Saffir-Simpson scale used to rate hurricanes.

A category three storm, with winds between 111-130 mph, can blow down large trees, destroy mobile homes and flood low-lying coastlines up to 8 miles inland.

Tropical Storm Bonnie, meanwhile, faded back into a depression as it moved through the Florida Panhandle toward Georgia, threatening floods in an area already soaked by rains, which is likely to get more of a bashing from Charley.

Charley was expected to hit Cuba full force on Thursday night, bearing a 10-14 foot storm surge, and to pass near Havana and its two million people around midnight. Heavy rain fell on Havana's deserted streets by early evening.

Key West, 90 miles north of Cuba, could see hurricane conditions by morning, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

EVACUATIONS IN TEN COUNTIES

Ten counties on Florida's Gulf coast, from just north of Tampa to Key West, ordered evacuations.

Traffic was extremely heavy on bridges across Tampa Bay and highways heading toward central Florida. Residents who did not plan to leave stocked up on plywood, food and water.

The hurricane center said Charley could send a 10-13 foot tidal surge onto the west Florida coast, including Tampa Bay where flooding could cause considerable property damage.

At MacDill Air Force Base, which sits on a low-lying peninsula in Tampa Bay, 1,500 nonessential military personnel and dependents were ordered out. Fifteen aerial tankers and transport planes were flown to safety at a base in Kansas.

In the Florida Keys, tourists and residents living in mobile homes were evacuated from the lower half of the 100-mile-long chain of islands off the state's southern tip. Shelters were opened.

Key West was nearly deserted. Shopkeepers boarded up windows and spray-painted messages on the boards. "We ain't never scared," said one.

"At this point, if you're staying here you need to hunker down and take care of your family," said Key West Police Chief Bill Fortune.

In Cuba, home to 11 million people, Havana residents left work at midday to form long lines to buy food and water. Officials warned people to secure windows, stock up on water, candles and torches and move cars from flood-prone areas.

Residents feared ramshackle colonial-era buildings in downtown Havana might not survive, and President Fidel Castro's communist government prepared to evacuate 120,000 people if needed by setting up shelters in schools.

Some 2,000 tourists and hotel workers were airlifted from the island of Cayo Largo (Key Largo) off the south coast.

At 8 p.m. EDT, Charley was 90 miles south of Havana, at latitude 21.7 north and longitude 82.3 west, the hurricane center said. It was moving north-northwest at a brisk 17 mph as it passed the Isle of Youth.

Jamaican authorities said one person was killed when Charley swept south of the island on Wednesday.



 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

Typhoon kills 63, injures 1,800 in Zhejiang

 

   
 

Experts: Consumer prices reach peak

 

   
 

Quake cracks reservoirs, 50,000 in danger

 

   
 

Chlorine leakage injures 70 in Jiangsu

 

   
 

Int'l patent fair opens with eye on technology

 

   
 

Olympic officials: No change in Beijing's plans

 

   
  Hurricane Charley menaces Cuba, Floridians flee
   
  US Marines seize center of Najaf, oil hits record
   
  Sharon furious over call to close more settlements
   
  Sudan says West after country's oil, gold
   
  US governor resigns, admits gay affair
   
  Fighting in Iraq's Kut kills at least 72
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  News Talk  
  American "democracy" under the microscope...  
Advertisement
         
主站蜘蛛池模板: 911国产自产精选 | 久草免费看 | 日本高清视频一区二区 | 免费一级毛片在线观看 | 亚洲综合视频网 | 91免费公开视频 | 亚洲日本中文字幕在线 | 亚洲精品tv久久久久 | www.成人网 | 亚洲国产欧美自拍 | 一区不卡在线观看 | 国产日产精品_国产精品毛片 | 欧美与黑人午夜性猛交久久久 | 日韩在线一区二区三区免费视频 | 免费看特级淫片日本 | 337p粉嫩日本亚洲大胆艺术照 | 99精品福利视频在线一区 | 性感美女香蕉视频 | 男女视频免费网站 | 精品久久久久久久久中文字幕 | 美女张开腿给男生桶下面视频 | 久热香蕉精品视频在线播放 | 精品国产v无码大片在线观看 | 中文字幕亚洲 综合久久 | 亚洲人成a在线网站 | 日韩一区二区三区视频在线观看 | 中国国产一级毛片 | 9久re在线观看视频精品 | 欧美xxxx在线视频 | 91久久视频 | 一区二区三区精品国产欧美 | 亚洲成年人网址 | 亚洲特一级毛片 | 日本老熟妇激情毛片 | 国产高清在线观看视频手机版 | 久草资源在线观看 | 精品中文字幕不卡在线视频 | 日朝欧美亚洲精品 | 亚洲成人高清在线观看 | 日本a级片免费观看 | 日韩欧美成末人一区二区三区 |