Residents batten down hatches for Ivan

Apprehensive coastal residents from Florida’s Panhandle to Louisiana started boarding up windows, packing and hitting the road today as powerful Hurricane Ivan headed for the Gulf Coast after ploughing across Cuba.

A hurricane watch was posted for a 420-mile-long swathe from St Marks in the Florida Panhandle, just south of Tallahassee, to New Orleans and Morgan City, Louisiana.