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30 August 2005 - More than 50 people have been killed and over a million homes left without electricity as Hurricane Katrina lashed the US Gulf coast, emergency officials have said.
Many of the deaths took place in just one Mississippi county with the Mississippi coast towns of Biloxi and Gulfport baring the brunt of Katrina as it spun away from the city of New Orleans in Louisiana. The storm is one of the strongest to have hit the US, causing up to $25bn of damage, according to early reports.
Helicopters and boats were used to rescue hundreds of people stranded on the roofs of their homes.
By 1pm Monday Florida Power & Light had mobilized a workforce of 14 000 FPL which had restored service to nearly 82 per cent of impacted customers and predicted that this would rise to 90 per cent by tonight. The large number of uprooted trees has presented a major challenge to the restoration work.
Power utility Entergy which has 2.7 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas said Hurricane Katrina has proven to be an extremely dangerous storm and already ranks as the worst in the company's history. As of 3 p.m. Monday, Entergy's electrical power outages from Hurricane Katrina stood at more than 939 000, with some 790 000 in Louisiana and about 149 000 in Mississippi without power.
The storm swept ashore on Monday after moving across the Gulf of Mexico. At least two oil rigs were set adrift by fierce winds. A rig in Mobile Bay, Alabama, broke free of its moorings and struck a bridge.
Katrina submerged much of New Orleans and tore part of the roof off a stadium where 10 000 people had sought refuge. The worst of the storm did not directly hit New Orleans. The storm weakened after making landfall and turned eastward, sparing New Orleans a direct hit, despite frightening predictions.
Power lines were cut, palm trees felled, shops wrecked and cars hurled across streets strewn with shattered glass. Utilities in Florida that have been damaged by Hurricane Katrina have already brought together a large work force to restore services. Progress Energy Florida sent 400 employees and contractors to the Gulf Coast this week to help central Louisiana-based utility Cleco Power restore electric services. Priority is being given to the worst hit areas of Florida and the resumption of services in other areas may be delayed until workforces become available.
Risk Management Solutions, a company which advises the insurance industry on catastrophe risk management has provisionally estimated losses to the insurance industry at $10-25bn. That means Katrina could eclipse the previous most destructive storm on record, Hurricane Andrew, which caused insured losses of 20.8bn at today's prices when it swept through the south-eastern US in 1992. Eqecat, another risk management firm, has estimated the damage at a more moderate $9-16bn.
Katrina was later downgraded to a tropical storm as it passed through the eastern part of the state, with wind speeds of 60mph (97km/h).
President George W Bush has issued a state of emergency in Louisiana and Mississippi, clearing the way for federal aid.
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