Mayan Towns to Be Declared Mass Graves


By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 11 minutes ago

GUATEMALA CITY - Guatemalan officials said they would abandon communities buried by landslides and declare them mass graveyards as reports of devastation trickled in from some of the more than 100 communities cut off from the outside world after killer mudslides.

Guatemala's death toll from torrential rains last week associated with Hurricane Stan stood at 652; 384 were missing.

The worst-hit communities will be abandoned and declared graveyards, officials said, after they stopped most efforts to dig out increasingly decomposed bodies.

"Panabaj will no longer exist," said Mayor Diego Esquina, referring to the Mayan hamlet on the shores of Lake Atitlan covered by a half-mile wide mudflow as much as 15 to 20 feet thick. "We are asking that it be declared a cemetery. We are tired, we no longer know where to dig."

Esquina said about 250 people remained missing. The bodies found were buried in mass graves.

Sniffer dogs trained to detect bodies didn't arrive in time, and "we don't even know where to dig anymore" in the acres of mudflows, Esquina said.

Hundreds of Mayan villagers who had swarmed over the vast mudslides with shovels, picks and axes relented Sunday and stopped digging for neighbors and family.

Vice President Eduardo Stein said steps were being taken to give towns "legal permission to declare the buried areas cemeteries" as "a sanitary measure."

Thousands of hungry and injured survivors mobbed helicopters delivering the first food aid to communities that have been cut off from the outside.

Fleets of helicopters — including U.S. Blackhawks and Chinooks — fanned out across the nation to evacuate the wounded and bring supplies to over 100 communities still cut off by the mudslides and flooding.

"When the helicopters land, some of the people are so desperate they have begun fighting for the food," said army Maj. Luis Ernesto Barona Gutierrez. "Some communities haven't had food supplies in five or six days."

When the craft arrived in communities along Guatemala's Pacific coast, hungry villagers grabbed wildly at bags of flour, rice and sugar.

Meanwhile, scores of foreign tourists were evacuated by foot and by helicopter from isolated communities ringing Lake Atitlan, a popular destination for U.S. and European travelers.

Villagers in Panabaj, the worst-hit town, where hundreds are still missing, refused to allow in the army because of memories of a 1990 massacre there during the country's 36-year civil war.

But U.S. military helicopters from Joint Task Force Bravo based at Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras joined the rescue efforts.

"We're still in search-and-rescue mode," said Army Major Bob Schmidt. "We're in the saving life and limb thought process."

In El Salvador authorities reported 71 deaths from the rains. Others were killed in Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica.

In southern Mexico, floodwaters began to subside, but many towns remained cut off from road access after scores of bridges were carried away by record-high flood waters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051010/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/central_america_flooding

AP - Sun Oct 9, 3:35 PM ET
A man walks through the mud as he crosses the international check point on the border of Mexico-Guatemala at Ciudad Hidalgo, the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico, Sunday Oct. 9, 2005. Raging flood waters cut off large areas of Central America and southern Mexico, hurting efforts to rescue victims of mudslides that have killed at least 164 people after Hurricane Stan crossed the area. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Guatemalan Mudslide Death Toll Could Reach 2,000

By VOA News
09 October 2005


Villagers and rescue workers work in a mudslide area in Panabaj, Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala
Guatemalan officials say there is little hope more survivors will be found in two villages buried by mudslides caused by Hurricane Stan.

The official death toll from the mudslides stood at 508 as of Saturday but officials say at least 1,400 other people are missing and presumed dead in the towns of Panabaj and Tzanchaj.

Huge slides of mud and rock came crashing down on the towns from the San Lucas volcano Wednesday. Rescue workers continue searching for victims but have been hampered by driving rain that has washed out many bridges and roads.

Floods and landslides triggered by Stan have killed more than 600 people overall, including 67 in El Salvador, at least 20 in Mexico, 10 in Nicaragua, and four in Honduras.

Some information for this report provided by AFP.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-10-09-voa28.cfm

Cayman Islands Braces for Tropical Storm

By JAY EHRHART, Associated Press Writer
27 minutes ago


GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands - A tropical storm warning was in effect Sunday for the Cayman Islands and residents began preparing for the worst. The U.S. Gulf Coast could be affected later in the week, forecasters said.

The system could become Tropical Storm Wilma, which would make it the 21st named storm of the season, tying the record for the most storms in an Atlantic season, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

The only other time so many storms have formed since record keeping began 154 years ago was in 1933, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president and the United States was in the midst of the Depression.

At 11 a.m. EDT, the tropical depression was centered about 195 miles southeast of Grand Cayman, forecasters said. It was nearly stationary over the past few hours and had sustained winds near 35 mph. Depressions become tropical storms when their winds reach 39 mph.

Long-term forecasts show the storm would likely move west and north, putting the storm in the Gulf of Mexico later this week. Forecasters said water temperature and other conditions were favorable for it to become a significant hurricane.

"Once storms get into the Gulf of Mexico, I'm aware of only one storm on record that dissipated," hurricane specialist James Franklin said. "It has almost nowhere to go except land somewhere."

A hurricane watch was issued for the Cayman Islands, meaning hurricane conditions could be felt there within 36 hours. A tropical storm warning, meaning tropical storm conditions within 24 hours, also was posted.

The depression is expected to bring 4 to 6 inches of rain in the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, with as much as 12 inches possible in some areas, forecasters said.

In the Cayman Islands, 51-year-old Susan Craig was ready.

"I still have all the supplies from the previous storms this season, basically a lot of peanut M&M's, so I am ready just in case," she said.

The chairman of the Cayman Islands' National Hurricane Center, Donovan Ebanks, said authorities had been monitoring the weather for several days.

"Because of where it is, and the fact that it is projected to become a tropical storm by tomorrow and possibly a hurricane in a couple of days, we've decided to go ahead and issue a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch," he said.

In Jamaica, officials issued a flash flood warning for northwestern parts of the island. Jamaica's office of disaster preparedness said several businesses had been flooded in Montego Bay.

Hurricane season ends Nov. 30. Wilma is the last on the list of storm names for 2005; there are 21 names on the yearly list because the letters q, u, x, y and z are skipped. If any other storms form, letters from the Greek alphabet would be used, starting with Alpha. That has never happened in roughly 60 years of regularly named Atlantic storms.

___

On the Net:

National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051016/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/tropical_weather

The system could become Tropical Storm Wilma, which would make it the 21st named storm of the season,

Tropical Storm Wilma Forms in Caribbean

By MICHELLE SPITZER, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 35 minutes ago

MIAMI - Tropical Storm Wilma formed Monday in the northwestern Caribbean, tying the record for the most storms in an Atlantic season and following a path that some forecasters believe could menace the Gulf Coast next week as a hurricane.

Wilma is the 21st named storm of the season. The only other time that many storms have formed since record keeping began 154 years ago was in 1933.

At 8 a.m. EDT, Wilma had top sustained wind near 40 mph, just above the threshold for tropical storms. It was centered about 205 miles southeast of Grand Cayman and drifting south near 5 mph, but was expected to turn to the southwest or west within the next day.

A hurricane watch was issued for the Cayman Islands, meaning hurricane conditions could be felt there within 36 hours. A tropical storm warning, meaning tropical storm conditions are expected within 24 hours, also was posted. The storm is expected to bring 4 to 6 inches of rain in the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, with as much as 12 inches possible in some areas, National Hurricane Center forecasters said.

Long-term forecasts show the storm heading into the Gulf of Mexico by the weekend. Forecasters said high water temperatures and other conditions were favorable for it to become a significant hurricane.

But hurricane specialist Stacy Stewart said Wilma had shifted west of its previous path and could hit Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. "At this time it doesn't appear it will be a major threat to the United States during the next five days," Stewart said.

But Wilma is then expected to re-emerge into the Gulf and could become a threat to the southern U.S.

"Usually when a storm gets into the Gulf, it's going to hit somewhere," said hurricane center meteorologist Larry Lahiff. "Where, that's too early to tell right now. Some models take it west, some take it north."

The U.S. Gulf Coast was already battered this year by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Dennis.

Since 1995, the Atlantic has been in a period of higher hurricane activity. Scientists say the cause of the increase is a rise in ocean temperatures and a decrease in the amount of disruptive vertical wind shear that rips hurricanes apart. Some researchers argue that global warming fueled by man's generation of greenhouse gases is the culprit.

Forecasters at the hurricane center say the busy seasons are part of a natural cycle that can last for at least 20 years, and sometimes up to 40 or 50. They say the conditions are similar to those when the Atlantic was last in a period of high activity in the 1950s and 60s.

The six-month hurricane season ends Nov. 30. Wilma is the last on the list of storm names for 2005; there are 21 names on the yearly list because the letters q, u, x, y and z are skipped. If any other storms form, letters from the Greek alphabet would be used, starting with Alpha. That has never happened in roughly 60 years of regularly named Atlantic storms.

___

Associated Press writer John Pain in Miami contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

AP - Sun Oct 16, 6:31 PM ET
In this infrared satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the center of Tropical Depression 24 is positioned about 150 miles to the southeast of Grand Cayman at 4 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 16, 2005. A tropical storm warning was in effect Sunday for the Cayman Islands as a tropical depression moved through the Atlantic on a path that could threaten the U.S. Gulf Coast later this week as a hurricane, forecasters said. (AP Photo/Andy Newman)

Honduras, Caribbean Brace for Wilma

AP - 29 minutes ago

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Hurricane Wilma whirled into the record books Tuesday as the 12th such storm of the season, on course to sideswipe Central America or Mexico and looming as a "significant threat" to Florida by the weekend. Forecasters warned that Wilma was "a major hurricane" that was likely to rake Honduras and the Cayman Islands before turning toward the narrow Yucatan Channel between Cuba and Mexico's Cancun region — then move into the storm-weary Gulf.

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/tropical_storms_and_hurricanes

Reuters - Tue Oct 18, 5:31 PM ET
NOAA satellite image of Hurricane Wilma taken at 3:45 p.m. EDT on October 18, 2005, as the storm continues brewing into a stronger hurricane in the northwestern Caribbean Sea. Hurricane Wilma is expected to strengthen into a major hurricane in the 'next day or two' as it heads north from the Caribbean Sea into the Gulf of Mexico on a track toward southern Florida, the National Hurricane Center said on Tuesday. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY REUTERS/NOAA/Handout

Wilma Grows to Category 2 in Caribbean

By FREDDY CUEVAS, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 24 minutes ago

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras - Hurricane Wilma whirled into the record books as the 12th such storm of the season, strengthening late Tuesday and setting a course to sideswipe Central America or Mexico. Forecasters warned of a "significant threat" to Florida by the weekend. Wilma became a Category 2 hurricane late Tuesday with winds reaching 110 mph, up from 80 mph earlier in the day.

Forecasters warned that Wilma was likely to rake Honduras and the Cayman Islands before turning toward the narrow Yucatan Channel between Cuba and Mexico's Cancun region — then move into the storm-weary Gulf.

The hurricane's outer bands brought rain, high winds and heavy surf to the Atlantic coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras, which closed two seaports on its Caribbean coast.

By 11 p.m. EDT, the hurricane was centered about 180 miles southwest of Grand Cayman Island and about 140 miles northeast of Cape Gracias a Dios on the Honduras-Nicaragua border. It was moving toward the west-northwest at nearly 8 mph, with a more northerly turn expected soon, according to the Hurricane Center.

.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051019/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/hurricane_wilma

Wilma Strengthens to Category 5 Hurricane

By FREDDY CUEVAS, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 32 minutes ago

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras - Hurricane Wilma strengthened into a Category 5 monster early Wednesday packing 175 mph winds, and forecasters said a key reading of the storm's pressure showed it to be the most powerful of the year.

Wilma was dumping rain on Central America and Mexico, and forecasters warned of a "significant threat" to Florida by the weekend.

The storm's power multiplied greatly over the last day. It was only Tuesday morning that Wilma grew from a tropical storm into a weak hurricane with 80 mph winds.

Wilma's pressure readings Wednesday morning indicated that it was the strongest hurricane of the season, said Trisha Wallace, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Wilma had a reading of 892 millibars, the same reading as a devastating unnamed hurricane that hit the Florida Keys in 1935.

"We do not know how long it will maintain this Category 5 state," Wallace said.

Jamaica, Cuba, Nicaragua and Honduras were getting heavy rain from the storm, though it wasn't likely to make landfall in any of those countries, she said. Forecasts showed it would likely turn toward the narrow Yucatan Channel between Cuba and Mexico's Cancun region — then move into the storm-weary Gulf.

By 2 a.m. EDT, the hurricane was centered about 170 miles southwest of Grand Cayman Island and about 400 miles southeast of Cozumel, Mexico. It was moving toward the west-northwest at nearly 8 mph, according to the Hurricane Center.

"It does look like it poses a significant threat to Florida by the weekend. Of course, these are four- and five-day forecasts, so things can change," said Dan Brown, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center.

Wilma already had been blamed for one death in Jamaica as a tropical depression Sunday. It has flooded several low-lying communities and triggered mudslides that blocked roads and damaged several homes, said Barbara Carby, head of Jamaica's emergency management office. She said that some 250 people were in shelters throughout the island.

While some Florida residents started preparing by buying water, canned food and other supplies, hurricane shutters hadn't gone up yet in Punta Gorda, on Florida's Gulf coast, and no long lines had formed for supplies or gas.

Still, Wilma's track could take it near that city and other Florida areas hit by Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm, in August 2004. The state has seen seven hurricanes hit or pass close by since then, causing more than $20 billion in estimated damage and killing nearly 150 people.

In Mexico, the MTV Latin America Video Music Awards ceremony, originally scheduled to be held Thursday at a seaside park south of Cancun, was moved up one day to avoid possible effects from Wilma.

The storm is the record-tying 12th hurricane of the season, the same number reached in 1969; 12 is the most in one season since record-keeping began in 1851.

On Monday, Wilma became the Atlantic hurricane season's 21st named storm, tying the record set in 1933 and exhausting the list of names for this year.

The deadly season has already witnessed the devastation of Katrina and Rita in the past two months, which killed more than 1,200 people and caused billions of dollars in damage.

Honduras and its neighbors already are recovering from flooding and mudslides caused earlier this month from storms related to Hurricane Stan. At least 796 people were killed, most of them in Guatemala, with many more still missing.

The government of flood-prone Honduras warned that Hurricane Wilma posed "an imminent threat to life and property of the people of the Atlantic coast." Neighboring Nicaragua also declared an alert.

Honduran President Ricardo Maduro declared "a maximum alert" along the northern coast and his office said emergency personnel and resources had been sent to the area, where evacuations were possible.

In Nicaragua, national disaster prevention chief Geronimo Giusto said the army, police and rescue workers were being mobilized and evacuation points readied.

Authorities in the Cayman Islands earlier called an alert.

Forecasters said Wilma should avoid the central U.S. Gulf coast that was devastated by Katrina and Rita. "There's no scenario now that takes it toward Louisiana or Mississippi, but that could change," said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center.

The six-month hurricane season ends Nov. 30. Wilma is the last on the list of storm names for 2005; there are 21 names on the yearly list because the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are skipped.

If any other storms form, letters from the Greek alphabet would be used, starting with Alpha, for the first time. Storms have gotten alphabetical names only in the past 60 years.

There have been 10 late-season hurricanes of Category 3 or higher since 1995.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051019/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/hurricane_wilma

AP - Wed Oct 19, 3:11 AM ET
This NOAA satellite image taken Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2005, at 2:15 a.m. EDT shows thick clouds associated with Hurricane Wilma centered west-southwest of Jamaica. The storm is expected to remain a strong hurricane the next few days while moving north-northwest through the Yucatan Channel. Over land, low clouds can be seen over parts of the Northeast, but few clouds can be seen over the Southeast. The extreme northern portion of Michigan is experiencing light showers from clouds over the region, while thunderstorms are making their way into the Southern Plains. (AP Photo/NOAA)

Hurricane Wilma Heads for Central America

AP - 1 hour, 1 minute ago

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras - Hurricane Wilma swirled into the most intense Atlantic storm ever recorded Wednesday, a Category 5 monster whose 175 mph winds and heavy rains were blamed for killing at least 11 people in Haiti and one in Jamaica as it bore down on Central America. Jamaica, Cuba, Nicaragua and Honduras were getting heavy rain from the storm, though it was not likely to make landfall in any of those countries.

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/world/tropical_storms_and_hurricanes

>>>>>>>>>>>

AP - Tue Oct 18,12:01 PM ET
Meteorologist Daniel Brown looks at an infra red satellite image of Hurricane Wilma, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005, at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. As of 11:00 AM EDT, Tuesday, the center of Hurricane Wilma was located about 195 miles south-southeast of Grand Cayman and about 200 miles east-northeast of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the Nicaragua, Honduras border. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

Wilma Heads for Central America; 12 Dead

By FREDDY CUEVAS, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 6 minutes ago

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras - The fringes of Hurricane Wilma lashed Caribbean nations on Wednesday, forcing schools to close and thousands to evacuate as it churned toward Mexico's Cancun resort and Florida after killing at least 12 people and becoming the most intense storm ever to form in the Atlantic.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami warned that Wilma would be a "significant threat" to Florida by the weekend in a season that has already seen devastation from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Officials ordered tourists out of the Florida Keys.

"We had well over 1,000 lives lost in Katrina. If Wilma, you know, comes into the U.S., to the Florida coast as a Category 3 or 4 hurricane, that potential for large loss of life is with us," said hurricane center director Max Mayfield.

The White House, stung by criticism that it had not responded quickly enough to Katrina, promised to stay on top of the situation. "We are closely monitoring what is an extremely dangerous storm," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. "People should take this hurricane very seriously."

Tourists packed Cancun's airport in hopes of catching flights out and MTV postponed its Video Music Awards Latin America ceremony, originally scheduled for Thursday at a seaside park south of the resort town.

Floridians braced for the storm by boarding up windows and stocking up on supplies, although forecasters at the hurricane center said the forward motion of the Category 5 storm appeared to be slowing, which could cause it to eventually weaken.

Mayfield said Wilma may not reach the Florida Keys until Saturday, possibly toward the evening. It had earlier been expected to reach the Florida mainland Saturday. It was still a Category 5 storm with 160 mph winds, down from 175 mph earlier in the day.

Heavy rain from Wilma's outer bands also forced evacuations in Honduras, Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti — even as much of Central America and southern Mexico was still recovering from Hurricane Stan, which left more than 1,500 people dead or missing.

Wilma 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.

At 5 p.m. EDT, Wilma was centered about 285 miles southeast of Mexico's Cozumel island and about 465 miles south-southwest of Key West. It was moving west-northwest near 7 mph.

Wilma's confirmed pressure readings early Wednesday dropped to 882 millibars, the lowest minimum pressure ever measured in a hurricane in the Americas, but it later lost power and rose to 900 millibars, according to the hurricane center. Lower pressure translates into higher wind speed.

The strongest Atlantic storm on record, based on pressure readings, had been Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, which registered 888 millibars.

With heavy rain, high winds, and rough seas already pounding coastal areas, flood-prone Honduras warned that Wilma posed "an imminent threat to life and property." The country closed two Caribbean ports.

The closest land to Wilma's eye were the nearly uninhabited Swan Islands, once used by the CIA for propaganda broadcasts to Cuba. They were 35 miles west of the storm's center.

The head of Haiti's civil protection agency, Maria Alta Jean-Baptiste, said rains associated with Wilma caused floods and landslides that killed at least 11 people since Monday. At least 2,000 families were forced from flooded homes.

Jean-Baptiste later said she received unconfirmed reports that two more people drowned Wednesday while trying to cross a river that overflowed its banks in the southern town of Les Anglais.

Cuban authorities suspended classes in the western province of Pinar del Rio and prepared to evacuate tourists from campgrounds and low-lying areas, according to Granma, the Communist daily. More than 1,000 people were evacuated in the island's eastern Granma province .

Jamaica, where heavy rain has fallen since Sunday, closed almost all schools and 350 people were living in shelters. One man died Sunday in a rain-swollen river.

A military helicopter plucked 19 people from rooftops Tuesday in St. Catherine parish, where some areas were flooded with up to 7 feet of water, said Barbara Carby, head of Jamaica's emergency management office.

"The problem is that with the level of saturation, it doesn't take much more rain for flooding to occur, so we still have to remain very much on alert," she said.

Prime Minister P.J. Patterson ordered the military to make emergency food shipments to stranded residents.

In the Cayman Islands, schools and most businesses were closed as heavy rains fell intermittently. About 1,000 residents lost power.

The storm was expected to dump up to 25 inches of rain in mountainous areas of Cuba, and up to 15 inches in the Caymans and Jamaica. Up to 12 inches were possible from Honduras to the Yucatan peninsula, the U.S. weather service said.

Forecasters said Wilma was stronger than the Labor Day hurricane that hit the Florida Keys in 1935, the most powerful Atlantic hurricane to make landfall on record.

But disruptive high-altitude winds in the Gulf of Mexico should weaken Wilma before landfall, said Hugh Cobb, a meteorologist at the hurricane center.

Wilma's track could take it near Punta Gorda on Florida's southwestern Gulf Coast and other areas hit by Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm, in August 2004.

The state has seen seven hurricanes hit or pass close by since then, causing more than $20 billion in damage and killing nearly 150 people.

Forecasters said Wilma should avoid the central Gulf coast ravaged by Katrina and Rita. Those storms killed more than 1,200 people.

Wilma is the record-tying 12th hurricane of the Atlantic season, the same number reached in 1969. Records have been kept since 1851. On Monday, Wilma became the Atlantic hurricane season's 21st named storm, tying the record set in 1933 and exhausting the list of names for this year.

The six-month hurricane season ends Nov. 30. Any new storms would be named with letters from the Greek alphabet, starting with Alpha.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051019/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/hurricane_wilma

AP - Wed Oct 19, 4:39 PM ET
Jose Vladimir rides his bicycle as dark clouds are seen above the resort city of Playa del Carmen in the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico on Wednesday Oct. 19, 2005. Hurricane Wilma, which has developed into the most intense hurricane on record in the Atlantic basin, is forecast to pass close by Mexico's Caribbean coast on Oct. 21.(AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Wilma Lashes Caribbean Coastlines; 13 Die
AP - 38 minutes ago
SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras - The fringes of Hurricane Wilma — which rapidly strengthened to one of the Americas' most intense storms ever — lashed Caribbean coastlines Wednesday, forcing tourists to flee and thousands to evacuate as it threatened to slam into Cancun and southern Florida. At least 13 deaths have been blamed on the storm this week, including a man who drowned Wednesday while trying to cross a river that overflowed its banks in southern Haiti.

AFP/NOAA-HO - Wed Oct 19, 6:39 PM ET NOAA satellite image shows the eye of Hurricane Wilma.(AFP/NOAA-HO)

Wilma Forces Caribbean Tourists to Flee

By FREDDY CUEVAS, Associated Press Writer
44 minutes ago

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras - Hurricane Wilma rapidly strengthened into one of the Americas' most intense storms ever and lashed Caribbean coastlines Wednesday, forcing tourists to flee as it threatened to slam into Cancun and southern Florida.

Wilma briefly grew into a monstrous Category 5 storm before weakening to a Category 4 Wednesday night. The storm forced thousands of people to evacuate low-lying areas in a 600-mile swath covering Cuba, Belize, Honduras, Jamaica, Haiti and the Cayman Islands, officials said.

At least 13 deaths have been blamed on Wilma this week, including a man who drowned Wednesday while trying to cross a river that overflowed its banks in southern Haiti.

Forecasters said Wilma has the potential to make an extremely damaging impact in a season that has already seen devastation from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. With its center still over open water, the storm's sustained winds were near 155 mph Wednesday night, down from 175 mph earlier in the day.

The National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield said Wilma could reach the Florida Keys Saturday, possibly toward the evening. Visitors were ordered out of the Florida Keys even as schools closed.

The White House, stung by criticism that
.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051020/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/hurricane_wilma

Deadly Wilma Tears Into Mexico Resort Area

AP - 14 minutes ago
CANCUN, Mexico - Hurricane Wilma tore into Mexico's resort-studded Mayan Riviera on Friday with torrential rains and shrieking winds, filling the streets with water, shattered glass and debris as thousands of stranded tourists hunkered down in hotel ballrooms and emergency shelters.

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AP - Fri Oct 21, 4:25 PM ET
A palm treed is knocked down by strong winds from Hurricane Wilma the area on Friday Oct. 21, 2005 in Cancun, Mexico.Hurricane Wilma wobbled toward Mexico's Cancun resort and Florida on Wednesday, an 'extremely dangerous' storm that has already killed 12 people in the Caribbean and was labeled the most intense ever to form in the Americas.(AP Photo/Israel Leal)

Varying Wilma Models Confound Forecasters


By RON WORD, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 21, 7:38 PM ET

MIAMI - In the time Max Mayfield has been at the National Hurricane Center, the forecasting of killer storms has gone from flying kites to satellites and computer models to help pinpoint the ferocity and landfall of storms. But Wilma has confounded the experts.

Simply put, models take information from satellites, aircraft flights, ships, buoys, water temperatures, winds at different levels and other sources to try to determine where a hurricane will go and how strong it will get.

Using those models, forecasters predicted Wilma would meander a few days in the Gulf of Mexico and then race across southwest Florida or the Keys. Its slow speed has somewhat confounded them. While forecasters believe Wilma will be picked up by the jet stream and zoom across Florida, it hasn't happened as quickly as the models have predicted.

"It's going to take a little patience," Mayfield said.

Mayfield said one of the models used for Wilma has been a "windshield wiper," widely varying each time it was been used. In some computer runs, it showed Wilma off the coast of Maine after five days. In others, the same model showed the storm off the coast of Cuba.

When the models agree, it is simple for forecasters to determine the path and speed of a hurricane. When the models disagree, forecasters often use a consensus to determine what they believe is the correct path and speed of a hurricane, Mayfield said.

John Celenza, director of weather technology for The Weather Underground, a private weather company in San Francisco, said his company is having the same trouble predicting Wilma as the Hurricane Center.

"We're all the same boat," he said. "It's really up in the air right now."

Celenza noted that a small change in the data put into a model can make a huge change in the forecast.

"What the model is doing is responding to something in the atmosphere," he said. "The models are very important," he said.

The models look like an alphabet soup of letters, such as GFDL, NOGAPS, and UMET.

NOGAPS is the U.S. Navy's forecast model; UKMET is the global forecast model run by the UK Meteorological Office; the GFDL is a model developed specifically for hurricane prediction by a lab at Princeton, N.J.

But experience has proved hurricanes can be unpredictable.

Last year, Hurricane Charley's 145-mph force took forecasters by surprise and showed just how shaky a science it still is to predict a storm's intensity.

Charley quickly grew from a Category 2 to a Category 4 storm and its course took a sharp turn to the right, which put it some 70 miles south of the originally projected bull's-eye.

With so much media focus on Tampa and St. Petersburg, many residents in and around Punta Gorda were caught unprepared for the Aug. 13 hurricane. That hurricane left at least 13 people dead in its wake, which might not have been nearly as big if the storm had stuck to its original path and struck the big evacuated cities farther up the coast.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051021/ap_on_sc/wilma_models

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT24/refresh/AL2405P+gif/025415P_sm.gif

Hurricane Wilma Tears Into Mexican Resorts

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer
24 minutes ago

CANCUN, Mexico - Hurricane Wilma tore into Mexico's resort-studded Caribbean coastline on Friday with torrential rains and shrieking winds, filling streets with water, shattered glass and debris as thousands of tourists hunkered down in hotel ballrooms and emergency shelters.

The eye of the mammoth storm, which had already killed 13 people, passed over Cozumel Island and was moving north-northwest over the nearby town of Playa de Carmen, on the mainland.

The slow-moving hurricane was expected to pound the area for two days as it passes over the tip of the Yucatan peninsula, raising the possibility of catastrophic damage. It was then expected to curl around Cuba and sprinting toward Florida.

Officials did not expect to be able to reach Cozumel until late Saturday, at the earliest, to assess damage, but Quintana Roo Gov. Felix Gonzalez Cantu, whose state includes Cancun, said the storm had caused "great destruction."

With 140 mph winds, the storm shattered windows and downed trees that crushed cars. Pay phones jutted from floodwaters in the famed hotel zone.

"I never in my life wanted to live through something like this," said cook Guadalupe Santiago, 27, as howling winds shattered windows and rocked the hotel where she had taken shelter. "There are no words" to describe it, she said

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051022/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/hurricane_wilma

AP - Fri Oct 21, 2:41 PM ET
A store sign lays grounded after being knocked down as Hurricane Wilma approached the area on Friday Oct. 21, 2005 in Cancun, Mexico.Hurricane Wilma wobbled toward Mexico's Cancun resort and Florida on Wednesday, an 'extremely dangerous' storm that has already killed 12 people in the Caribbean and was labeled the most intense ever to form in the Americas. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Wilma's 120 Mph Winds Rip Mexico's Yucatan

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer
9 minutes ago

CANCUN, Mexico - Ocean waves surged over the narrow strip of land holding Cancun's resort hotels Saturday as Hurricane Wilma crawled over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, keeping some 30,000 tourists huddled in hotels and shelters amid shrieking winds and shattering glass.

The slow advance of the storm, which killed 13 people in Haiti and Jamaica last week, gave Florida more time to prepare but meant another day of misery for people riding out 120 mph winds and flooding in hot, leaky shelters with little food and water.

After battering Cozumel Island with 140 mph winds Friday, Wilma came ashore overnight near Playa de Carmen in a sparsely populated area of luxury resorts about 30 miles south of Cancun and creeped toward this city, weakening to a Category 3 storm.

The storm was expected to pummel the tip of Yucatan all day Saturday before moving into the Gulf of Mexico, curling around Cuba's western end and sprinting toward Florida for an expected landfall Monday.

In Florida, residents began leaving the Keys and parts of the mainland Friday. Scattered gasoline shortages were reported and traffic jams backed up highways as people fled Florida's west coast.

Winds caused severe damage in Playa de Carmen, flattening dozens of wood-and-tarpaper houses and tossing rooftop water tanks and wooden window coverings through the air. Communications were cut off with Cozumel, a popular cruise ship destination 11 miles offshore.

Damage was intensified by the storm being nearly stalled atop Yucatan since Friday.

"This is the equivalent of having four or five hurricanes of this size pass over one after the other, given the amount of time we have been suffering hurricane-force winds," said Quintana Roo Gov. Felix Gonzalez Cantu, whose state includes Cancun. "Never in the history of Quintana Roo have we had storm like this."

Sea water flowed through Cancun's evacuated beachfront hotel zone, which lies between the ocean and a lagoon. Shop windows broke, falling trees crushed cars and pay phones jutted from waist-deep water.

At the Xbalamque Hotel in downtown Cancun, tourists and local residents listened in horror as windows shattered, the wind howled and the building shook.

"I never in my life wanted to live through something like this," said Guadalupe Santiago, a 27-year-old cook. "There are no words" to describe it."

Jan Hanshast, a tourist from Castle Rock, Colo., stood in the flooded hallway.

"My son's starting to lose it. He's tired and hungry," he said. As another howling burst of wind buffeted the building, he added, "Hearing things like that doesn't help."

Outside the shelter, the air was filled with debris, including pieces of buildings that were beginning to crumble under the constant lashing.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm was "really clobbering" the areas around Cozumel and Cancun.

"It's going to be a long couple of days here for the Yucatan Peninsula," said Max Mayfield, the center's director.

Gonzalez Cantu called the destruction "tremendous," but information was limited because of downed communications. Officials did not expect to get to Cozumel until late Saturday at the earliest to assess damage.

At 8 a.m. EDT, the hurricane's eye was inland over northeastern Yucatan about 10 miles southwest of Cancun and about 415 miles southwest of Key West, Fla. Hurricane force winds extended out 85 miles from the eye and gale force winds up to 200 miles.

Juan Luis Flores, an emergency services official in Quintana Roo state, said about 65,000 people had been evacuated before the hurricane hit Mexico. Civil defense chief Carmen Segura assured people "their families are protected as they should be."

Many tourists found themselves sleeping on the floors of hotel ballrooms, schools and gymnasiums reeking of sweat because there was no power or air conditioning. Power was cut to most of the region before the storm as a precaution.

Scott and Jamie Stout of Willisville, Ill., were spending their honeymoon on a Cancun basketball court with a leaky roof.

"After one more day of this, I believe people will start getting cranky," said Scott Stout, 26. "Things could get messy."

The Stouts, at least, had food and coffee. Devon Anderson, 21, of Sacramento, Calif., was sharing 10 rooms at a rundown Cozumel school with 200 other Americans.

"We are all sleeping on the floor," Anderson said. "There's no food, no water."

Hotels being used as shelters pushed furniture up against windows, but the wind blasted through the improvised barriers. Water poured into rooms and hallways through broken windows. People at some shelters slept under plastic sheeting.

Mexican officials said about 20,000 tourists were at shelters and hotels on the mainland south of Cancun and an estimated 10,000-12,000 were in Cancun itself. About 50 hotels there were evacuated.

Cancun Red Cross director Ricardo Portugal said the biggest problem so far were "nervous crises," and 11 pregnant women who had gone into early labor and had to be ferried to hospitals.

As the storm lashed Yucatan, it also pounded the western tip of Cuba, where the government evacuated more than 500,000 people. Forecasters said Wilma could bring more than three feet of rain in parts of Cuba.

Waves of up to 21 feet crashed on the westernmost tip of Cuba and heavy rains cut off several small communities. About 7,000 residents were evacuated from the coastal fishing village of La Coloma in Cuba's southern Pinar del Rio province.

Early Wednesday, Wilma briefly became the most intense hurricane recorded in the Atlantic with 882 millibars of pressure, breaking the record low of 888 set by Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. Lower pressure brings faster winds.

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Hurricane Wilma Punishes Mexico Coastline

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer
26 minutes ago

CANCUN, Mexico - Hurricane Wilma punished Mexico's Caribbean coastline for a second day Saturday, ripping away storefronts, peeling back roofs and forcing tourists and residents trapped in hotels and shelters to scramble to higher floors. At least three people were killed.

Waves slammed into seaside pools and sent water surging over the narrow strip of sand housing Cancun's luxury hotels and raucous bars, joining the sea with the alligator-infested lagoon. Downtown, winds tore banks open, leaving automatic teller machines standing in knee-deep water.

Wilma weakened to a Category 2 hurricane by midafternoon as it inched northward, with sustained winds of 100 mph, but it was expected to pick up speed Sunday after moving out over the Gulf of Mexico. It was likely to sideswipe Cuba before hitting Florida, probably Monday.

A hurricane watch was issued Saturday for the entire southern Florida peninsula, with heavy rain from Wilma's outer bands already causing hip-deep flooding in the Fort Lauderdale. At the same time, a record 22nd tropical storm — Alpha — formed in the Atlantic.

As Wilma's eye passed over Cancun on Saturday, the air became calm and eerily electric. Some residents ventured briefly from their hiding spots to survey the flooded, debris-filled streets.

Several dozen people looted at least four convenience stores, carrying out bags of canned tuna, pasta and soda, while others dragged tables, chairs and lamps from a destroyed furniture store. Police were guarding only larger stores, including a downtown Wal-Mart and an appliance store.

A brief outing during the eye's calm revealed a downtown Cancun littered with glass, tree trunks and cars up to their roofs in water. The only cleanup crew visible consisted of two workers using saws to break up a tangle of tree branches. The front half of a Burger King had collapsed, and at least one gas station had its roof blown away.

State and federal officials said they had little information on damage because Wilma's winds, at 110 mph, made reconnaissance almost impossible.

Yucatan Gov. Patricio Patron told Formato 21 radio that one person was killed by a falling tree, but he offered no details. And in Playa del Carmen, two people died from injuries they sustained Friday when a gas tank exploded during the storm, Quintana Roo state officials said.

The storm earlier killed 13 people in Jamaica and Haiti.

Quintana Roo State Civil Protection Director Maj. Jose Nemecio said a few emergency crews were able to begin distributing emergency supplies in Playa del Carmen on Saturday. But there were few reports on the overall extent of the damage.

"We really know nothing. There are no telephones, no cell phones," he said. "We have no news from Cancun, Playa del Carmen or Cozumel. I think this is going to be a catastrophic situation."

Added Quintana Roo Gov. Felix Gonzalez Cantu: "Never in the history of Quintana Roo have we had a storm like this."

On the island of Cozumel, which has been isolated since weathering the brunt of the storm on Friday, fruit and vegetable salesman Jorge Ham, 26, told The Associated Press by phone that winds had dropped significantly. He saw no catastrophic damage during a brief tour of downtown Saturday.

"There are broken windows, downed trees, fallen power lines, but nothing else," he said. "People have taken shelter."

In Playa del Carmen, to the south of Cancun, screaming winds flattened wood-and-tarpaper houses and sent water tanks and plywood sheets flying.

In Cancun, the storm's angry winds ripped roofing off luxury hotels and knocked out windows, filling rooms and shelters with water and forcing some evacuees to seek higher ground. Others slept with plastic sheeting as bedding.

Weak ceiling tiles forced officials to evacuate at least one downtown shelter housing some 1,000 people, mostly Americans.

Hotel workers pushed furniture up against windows, but the force of the wind blasted through the improvised barriers.

In the streets, office furniture and broken glass bobbed in water that sloshed between buildings. Residents watched the debris float by from upstairs balconies.

Buildings shook in the wind as if earthquakes were hitting them, terrifying tourists and residents waiting out the storm in sweltering, dark shelters.

"This was a little more than I bargained for," said Julie Martin, 47, of Charlotte, N.C., one of about 20 people who were evacuated from the beachside Ritz-Carlton resort to the downtown Xbalamque Hotel.

"You really don't think it's this bad when you see it on TV," she said. "You really don't know what it's like until it's happening to you. It would be very easy to panic but you know you just can't."

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AP - Sat Oct 22, 7:25 PM ET
A comercial plaza destroyed during a Hurricane Wilma on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2005, in Cancun, Mexico. Hurricane Wilma wobbled toward Mexico's Cancun resort. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Strengthening Wilma Speeds Toward Florida
AP - 44 minutes ago
KEY WEST, Fla. - Rain pounded Key West early Monday as Hurricane Wilma accelerated toward storm-weary Florida, threatening residents with 115-mph winds, tornadoes and a surge of seawater that could flood the Keys and the state's southwest coast.

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AP - Mon Oct 24,12:29 AM ET
In this National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration color-enhanced satellite image, the center of Hurricane Wilma is shown about 100 miles west of Key West, Fla., at about 11:45 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 23, 2005, and moving northeast towards the southwest Florida coastline. (AP Photo/Andy Newman)

Cuba Rescues 250 Flood Victims From Wilma

By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press Writer
20 minutes ago

HAVANA - Scuba diving teams in inflatable rafts pulled nearly 250 people from their flooded homes early Monday after massive waves churned by Hurricane Wilma flooded the capital's Malecon coastal highway and adjacent neighborhoods of old, crumbling buildings.

The communist-government's Revolutionary Armed Forces were also using amphibious vehicles to rescue people whose homes were flooded by more than 3 feet of water when the ocean penetrated more than four large city blocks into Havana's coast.

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