Hurricane Ivan moves across the Carolinas

HURRICANE Ivan extended its deadly march across the Southern United States yesterday, destroying homes, swamping streets and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power from the Gulf Coast to the Carolinas.

Ivan was the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States since Floyd in 1999, but it could have been worse.

In all, the hurricane was blamed for 70 deaths in the Caribbean and at least 33 in the United States, 14 of them in Florida.

More bad news could await: The storm’s remnants battered the southern Appalachians yesterday.

And Tropical Storm Jeanne looms in the Atlantic on a track toward the southeastern United States - and, possibly, Florida.

Ivan weakened after coming ashore, but it continued to spin off tornadoes and caused flooding across the South, already soggy after Hurricanes Charley and Frances. Up to nine inches of rain fell on parts of Georgia.

In North Carolina, Ivan’s heavy rain and wind forced evacuations along rivers, knocked out power to more than 100,000 residents and sent trees crashing into homes across the western part of the state. At least six people died there.

The hurricane’s remnants also prompted flood warnings in 34 eastern and middle Tennessee counties, where forecasters predicted up to seven inches of rain.

By late morning yesterday the storm’s remnants were centred about 45 miles east of Knoxville, Tennessee, at the state’s eastern tip.

Ivan came ashore with 130 mph winds near Gulf Shores Beach, Alabama, early Thursday, but it was the Panhandle - squarely in the northeast quadrant of the storm, where the winds were most violent - that took the brunt.

More than two million residents along a 300-mile stretch of the Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Panama City, Florida, cleared out as Ivan closed in.

In Escambia County, home to Pensacola and some 300,000 residents, at least seven people died in the storm, including one who suffered a heart attack at a shelter.

“Some of the houses, everything inside was gone out of one side - like a heavy wave of water hit it and spit the stuff inside of the house out,” Sheriff Ron McNesby said.

Electricity, water and sewer services could take weeks to be restored, Escambia County emergency management chief Michael Hardin said yesterday.

“We’ve got a long haul ahead of us,” Mr Hardin said.

Off Gulf Shores Highway, in a neighbourhood nestled along Pensacola’s Grand Lagoon, at least a half dozen homes and businesses were demolished - some swept clear off their foundations.

The hiss and stench of leaking gas filled the air as stricken residents waded through calf-high water collecting what belongings they could.

Doug Pacitti, lived with his friend and four-year-old son across the street from the bay.

On Thursday, he stepped over crumbled bricks, broken dishes and plywood to survey what was left of the house he rented.

Where the kitchen should have been, silverware and skillets sat under an open sky.

The refrigerator was propelled into the backyard, where it came to rest under a fallen pine tree. “Everything’s gone - everything,” said Mr Pacitti, 31.

“Three thousand dollars (€2463) worth of fishing poles. The antique dishes my grandmother gave me - gone. Even my kid’s toys.”

A storm surge of 10 to 16 feet spawned monster waves. Search and rescue missions in Florida continued, but no new storm victims were found early Friday.

A National Guard convoy left Tallahassee yesterday to deliver food, ice, water and other supplies to hard-hit areas, and hoped to get relief centres set up by today.