Wilma forces Caribbean tourists to flee
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-20 12:56

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

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. Forecasters warned it could smash into southwestern Florida on Saturday with towering waves, then work its way up the East Coast with devastating effect.

Heavy rain, high winds and rough seas pounded coastal areas of Honduras, knocking out power to some towns, forcing the evacuation of coastal villages and closure of two Caribbean ports.

Four fishermen were reported missing at sea and about 500 U.S. and European tourists were moved to safe locations at hotels on the Bay Islands.

The head of Haiti's civil protection agency, Maria Alta Jean-Baptiste, said a man drowned Wednesday while trying to cross a river that overflowed its banks in the southern town of Les Anglais. She said another man was swept away by the fast-moving current but survived.

The death raised to 13 the number of people killed in rain and landslides since Monday in the island nation. One man also died Sunday in a rain-swollen river.

Cuban authorities suspended classes in the threatened western province of Pinar del Rio and prepared to evacuate tourists from campgrounds and low-lying areas, according to Granma, the Communist Party daily. Heavy rains in the island's eastern province of Granma forced the evacuations of more than 1,000 people.

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, which 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.