UPDATE: Wilma Strikes Florida

SECOND UPDATE (7P Eastern):

MIAMI (Reuters) - Hurricane Wilma left a swath of flooding and destruction across Florida on Monday, killing four people and leaving millions in the dark on its four-hour rampage across the state. Risk assessment companies estimated insured losses from Wilma at $6 billion to $10 billion in Florida.

Wilma smashed into southwestern Florida as a surprisingly strong Category 3 hurricane after feeding for days over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and killing 17 people in a rampage through the Caribbean.

It swamped the low-lying Florida Keys, then hit the mainland south of the fast-growing retirement city of Naples on the southern Gulf Coast and sped across the Everglades to the populous Miami-Fort Lauderdale area on the Atlantic Coast.

Four deaths were confirmed in Florida, including a man who died when a tree fell on him in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Coral Springs. Two people died in Collier County in southwest Florida and one in St. Johns County in northeast Florida. State officials said 3.1 million households, or more than 6 million people, were without electricity.

Wilma flooded parts of the Overseas Highway linking the Keys with the mainland. Emergency officials in Marathon, in the middle of the 110-mile (175-km) island chain, reported residents stranded on roofs by flooding and said leaking propane tanks and gas lines had caused small explosions.


MIAMI (Reuters) - Hurricane Wilma crashed into Florida on Monday, swamping the popular tourist island Key West and hammering the densely populated Miami-Fort Lauderdale area after killing 17 people in a rampage through the Caribbean.

Wilma hit the state as surprisingly strong Category 3 hurricane after feeding for days over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It weakened to a Category 2 as it raced across the state in about four hours, but dealt a harsh blow.

Wilma's power startled thousands of people in the vulnerable, low-lying Florida Keys who ignored evacuation orders. Although the eye moved north of Key West, a powerful storm surge washed through the chain of islands and left much of the tourist town made famous by writer Ernest Hemingway under thigh-high water.

"There is massive flooding from tip to tip," Key West Mayor Morgan McPherson said.
By 1 p.m. (1700 GMT) Monday, Wilma's center had begun to move out over the Atlantic Ocean off Palm Beach County and was heading northeast at about 25 mph (40 kph).

[From another report: damage to Ft. Lauderdale worst in 55 years.]

Wilma Strengthens Again to Category 3 Approaching Florida Keys

By DAVID ROYSE, Associated Press

KEY WEST, Fla. - Rain pounded Key West early Monday as Hurricane Wilma accelerated toward storm-weary Florida, threatening residents with 120-mph winds, tornadoes and a surge of seawater that could flood the Keys and the state's southwest coast.

The Category 3 hurricane was expected to maintain its strength and make landfall around dawn in the state's southwest corner, likely near Naples and Marco Island, National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield said. He warned that the storm surge in the area south of Marco Island could reach 17 feet.

"This is a very dangerous hurricane," Mayfield said. "People need to stay hunkered down."

Once ashore, the fast-moving hurricane was expected to slice northeast across the state at up to 25 mph, with the Atlantic Coast likely to get winds nearly as strong as those hitting the Gulf Coast.