Hurricane Wilma Hits Florida

Hurricane Wilma today made landfall in south-west Florida after battering parts of Cuba.

Forecasters in the US said the category three storm - which has killed more than 20 people in the Caribbean and Mexico - had not weakened as had previously been predicted.

Florida residents in Wilma's predicted path were urged to head for storm shelters as wind speeds rose to 125mph.

More than 22,600 people were today in shelters across the state, but concerns remained over the low-lying Florida Keys, where police said less than 10% of the 78,000 residents had been evacuated.

Shortly before Wilma made landfall, Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida, urged people in the Keys to take shelter. "I cannot emphasise enough to the folks that live in the Florida Keys that a hurricane is coming," he said.

Power cuts were reported in the Keys and along the south-west side of Florida. "This is a very dangerous hurricane," Max Mayfield, the director of the National Hurricane Centre, said. "People need to stay hunkered down."

The eye of the storm made landfall in the US at around 1130 BST near Cape Romano, 22 miles south of Naples. Earlier, it had battered the west and north of Cuba and caused huge storm waves in Havana.

The Malecón road along the seafront was submerged, and storm waters were reported to have reached nearby neighbourhoods. Cuban authorities said water had reached as far as half a mile into southern coastal communities.

The National Hurricane Centre, based in Miami, said Wilma could have caused rainfall of up to 38cm in some parts of western Cuba, from which more than 625,000 people had been evacuated. Fidel Castro, the Cuban president, appeared on television to appeal for calm.

The fast-moving hurricane was expected to slice north-east across Florida, and forecasters said it would probably be a category two storm by the time it hit the east coast.

The National Guard was on alert, while state and federal officials had trucks of ice and food ready to deploy. Officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) - which was heavily criticised over its response to Hurricane Katrina - were poised to send in dozens of military helicopters and millions of ready to eat meals if needed.

Over the weekend, Wilma caused severed damage to the Mexican resort city of Cancún and on the island of Cozumel off the Yucat´n.

The storm has left around 20,000 tourists stranded in cramped shelters with no electricity, and British embassy officials have been deployed to assist stranded visitors from the UK.

Wilma is reported to have caused eight deaths in Mexico, with 13 having died in Jamaica and Haiti. Four bodies were found off the Mexican island of Cozumel, although it was not clear whether they had been killed by the storm.

Forecasters were also monitoring Tropical Depression Alpha, which became the record-breaking 22nd named storm of the 2005 Atlantic season.

Yesterday, Alpha pounded Haiti and the Dominican Republic with torrential rains and high winds, killing at least one person in Haiti. It was expected to move into the open Atlantic today after brushing the south-east Bahamas.