US braces for impact of double storm

TROPICAL storm Bonnie began to make landfall in Florida’s Panhandle yesterday, while residents in the Florida Keys and southwest Florida prepared to meet the stronger Hurricane Charley.

Some 380,000 Tampa Bay area residents were told to evacuate coastal or low-lying areas because of Hurricane Charley. It was the largest such evacuation in the history of Pinellas County, which includes St Petersburg.

A state of emergency was declared for all of Florida as the one-two punch of Bonnie and then Charley moved closer, the first time the state has faced such a plight in almost a century.