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Hurricane Wilma predicted to change course for Florida

Chuck Allford loads plywood into the back of his truck at a store on Tuesday morning in preparation for the coming storm, in Port Charlotte, Florida. PHOTO: AP

Hurricane Wilma intensified into a category four hurricane early yesterday as it pushed on a path northward between western Cuba and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, the US National Hurricane Center said, adding it could strengthen to category 4.

Yesterday, the record-equalling 21st storm of the Atlantic season was generating sustained winds of near 240kph, the Miami-based center said in a bulletin.

Wilma could strengthen from category four to category five, the highest level on the SaffirSimpson scale, yesterday, it warned.

The hurricane was located 280km south-southwest of Grand Cayman Islands and 655km southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, and moving slowly west-northwest toward Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, but was expected to turn toward the northwest within 24 hours.

Wilma is expected to move into the Gulf of Mexico, then take a predicted turn northeast toward Florida.

"All interests in the Florida Keys -- the southernmost US islands -- and the Florida peninsula should closely monitor the progress of Wilma," the hurricane center said.

World oil prices dropped amid hopes that Wilma would not hit oil installations on the storm-weary US Gulf Coast.

Authorities in Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua and the Cayman Islands have all issued alerts over the hurricane.

Cuba has ordered 5,000 people evacuated from flood-prone areas on the storm's course, and Mexico put the tourist zones on Yucatan on alert.

Honduras was also ordered to start preparations for evacuations as heavy rain started falling. Widespread flooding was reported in Jamaica from rainfall sparked by the hurricane.

Organizers of the MTV Latin Awards brought their annual ceremony at the Mexican resort of Cancun forward one day to yesterday because of the storm.

Wilma is the 12th full-blown hurricane of the Atlantic season and a series of them have left thousands dead in Central America and on the US Gulf Coast.

Hurricane Katrina, which was at category 4 when it made landfall on August 29, killed more than 1,200 in the US, and Hurricane Stan last week left more than 2,000 dead in Guatemala alone.

Florida has already been battered by hurricanes Dennis and Katrina this year, and the state's governor, Jeb Bush, brother of US President George W. Bush, was downcast at the thought of a new hit.

"Why us?" he said. "How does a storm take a sharp 90 degree turn?"

A climate study released on Monday said the continental US will face more extreme temperatures during the next century and worse rainfall along the Gulf Coast.

The study, published by the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, warned that greenhouse gases will likely swell to twice their current levels by the end of the century.
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