Hurricane Charley slams into Florida

HURRICANE Charley slammed Florida’s west coast with winds of 145mph last night, striking south of populous Tampa and threatening to swamp the vulnerable shore with a 15-foot tidal surge.

The approach of the rare and powerful Category 4 storm, the second strongest on the hurricane intensity scale, prompted evacuation orders for nearly 2 million people, shut down Disney World’s central Florida theme parks and sent US warships out to sea.

Blamed for four deaths in Jamaica and Cuba, Charley threatened to swamp seaside buildings from the tourist islands of Sanibel and Captiva, off the southwest coast, to downtown Tampa.