STANDING at the southern most point of the USA, in Key West Florida, the realisation set in that we had finally run out of road.

A couple in Florida enjoying a plate of steamed clams made an unusual discovery - a rare purple pearl.

Windows were boarded up and the streets on Cedar Key in the Gulf of Mexico were desolate as the first tropical storm of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season started moving over Florida early today, but forecasters said they did not expect Alberto to strengthen into a hurricane.

More than 1.2 million people in metropolitan New Orleans were warned to get out as 140-mph Hurricane Ivan churned toward the Gulf Coast, threatening to submerge the below-sea-level city in what could be the most disastrous storm to hit in nearly 40 years.