Hurricane Wilma slashes southwestern Florida

Hurricane Wilma made landfall in southwestern Florida early Monday as a Category 3 storm, and at least one person was killed.

The storm was weakened to a Category 2 storm more than two hours later, with sustained wind of 110 mph (176 kph) as it crossed South Florida, the National Hurricane Center said.

The eyewall of Wilma, the eighth hurricane to hit Florida in 15 months, made landfall at 6:30 a.m. EDT (1030 GMT) and brought with it a storm surge flooding of 12 to 18 feet (3.6 to 5.4 meters) along the coast near and to the south of where Wilma made landfall, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

One man was killed by a falling tree in the state, the CNN reported.

More than 22,600 people were in shelters across the state, and tens of thousands of homes and businesses were without power.

But in the low-lying Florida Keys, not even 10 percent of the Keys' 78,000 residents evacuated, Sheriff Richard Roth told the Associated Press Monday morning.

"The metropolitan areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Dade County are experiencing some of the worst of the weather now," said NHC deputy director Ed Rappaport.

"Over the next hour or two conditions will actually get worse. It's important for people to just stay inside," he said.

David Paulison, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said FEMA personnel were in shelters waiting for the hurricane winds to die down before they could assess the damage and begin relief efforts.

The National Guard was already on alert, and state and federal officials had trucks of ice and food ready to deploy, with the FEMA poised to send in dozens of military helicopters and 13.2 million ready-to-eat meals if needed, news reports said.

Source: Xinhua