Hurricane Wilma strengthens, lashes Florida

KEY WEST, Florida - A strengthening Hurricane Wilma lashed southern Florida today as it raced toward the densely populated Miami area after pounding Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and killing 17 people on a rampage through the Caribbean.

At one point the most intense hurricane on record in the Atlantic, Wilma weakened after hammering Cancun and Cozumel for three days with punishing winds and rains, destroying homes and ruining luxury hotels.

But the vast and menacing storm's maximum sustained winds strengthened to 120 mph (193 km/h) overnight as it roared toward Florida, where storm-weary residents largely ignored evacuation orders. Wilma was a Category 3 storm, capable of causing extensive damage.

"We were hoping that it would weaken some before it makes landfall," Max Mayfield, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center, told Miami's WFOR television. "We're not certain that will happen now."

The center of the storm was expected to come ashore in Florida around daybreak near the wealthy city of Naples on the southwest coast.

Hurricane-force wind gusts from the large storm were already hitting parts of the lower Florida Keys, with a gust of 76 mph (122 km/h) reported at Key West, the hurricane center said.

The streets of the Keys, a 110-mile (175-km) island chain no more than 16 feet above sea level at its highest point and connected to the Florida mainland by a single road, were deserted and dark as the winds and rains picked up overnight, and power went out block by block.

Seawater sloshed into downtown streets in Key West.

Fatigued after having been forced to evacuate for three earlier hurricanes this season, and after waiting many days for Wilma to near the United States, no more than 7 percent of the Keys' 80,000 residents fled ahead of Wilma, officials said.

The last city evacuation bus left Key West on Sunday morning with only the driver and one passenger despite fears that Wilma's storm surge could wash out the Overseas Highway and strand residents without power, water or telephone lines.

"The storm had meandered around so long that it lured me into a false sense of security," said Key West resident Warren Benjamin.

In southwest Florida, residents crowded restaurants and bars on Sunday evening in Naples and seemed to pay little heed to warnings the hurricane could bring a tidal surge of up to 17 feet to the area.

Wilma was the eighth hurricane to strike Florida in a little over 14 months, an unprecedented display of nature's fury.

The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, which ends on November 30, became the busiest since records began 150 years ago with the formation on Saturday of the 22nd named tropical cyclone, Alpha.

It also boasts three of the most intense Atlantic storms on record, with Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in August and killed 1,200, Rita, which hit the Texas-Louisiana border a few weeks later, and now Wilma, the storm with the lowest barometric pressure reading ever observed in the Atlantic.

Severe damage in Cancun

Wilma caused severe damage in Cancun and on the island of Cozumel off Mexico's Yucatan.

Many of the 20,000 or more tourists stranded on the "Maya Riviera" were short of food and water and becoming increasingly frustrated on Sunday as they faced a fourth night in cramped shelters with no electricity or running water.

The storm killed seven people in Mexico, fewer than many had feared. It killed 10 people in Haiti last week after spawning mudslides in the impoverished Caribbean country.

"There is huge devastation. This hurricane has provoked a tremendous impact. But Mexico has experience and it was demonstrated right from the beginning, saving lives," Mexican President Vicente Fox told Reuters in Cancun.

By 3 a.m. (7am GMT), the center of Wilma was about 75 miles west-northwest of Key West and 95 miles southwest of Naples and moving northeast at a brisk 20 mph (32km/h). Hurricane-force winds extended up to 85 miles, while tropical storm-force winds stretched out 230 miles (370 km) from the center.

Wilma was expected to accelerate and shoot across the Florida Peninsula like "a rocket," Mayfield said.

Some of its strongest winds were likely to be felt in the area from Miami, through Fort Lauderdale to Palm Beach, where 5 million people live.

In Cuba, 86-mph (138km/h) wind gusts howled through the deserted streets of Havana, knocking down lampposts and smashing windows in some tall buildings. The city's 2 million inhabitants hunkered down in the dark, listening to battery-powered radios after authorities cut power to prevent electrical accidents.

Rough seas stirred up by Wilma crashed over Havana's famed Malecon sea wall after midnight, turning streets into rivers of knee-deep floodwater. About 15 blocks were under water.

Firefighters rescued residents from flooded homes near the seafront, carrying some elderly people to safety.

"We haven't seen it this bad in years," said resident Alfredo Saurez.

(additional reporting by Anthony Boadle in Havana)

- REUTERS