Hurricane Ivan slammed into the US Gulf coast today with furious winds and flooding, ripping roofs off homes and hotels, washing out bridges, downing power lines and spawning tornadoes that killed seven people.
Ivan, which had weakened to a tropical storm by Thursday afternoon as it churned inland, turned roads into debris-filled rivers and smashed piers and marinas in Alabama and northwestern Florida.
Ivan
At least seven people died in northwest Florida when tornadoes touched down and damaged or destroyed up to 70 buildings, including a fire station, police said.
The dead included four killed when a twister struck near Blountstown in Calhoun County, where officials earlier reported a death toll of five.
An 8-year-old girl in Milton died when a tree fell on her home.
"Devastation. That's the best description I can give you," said Police Lt. Rodney Eagerton in Pensacola, a city of 60,000 in far northwestern Florida that straddles a bay and is fringed by beaches.
had killed 68 people in a deadly trek through the Caribbean over the past 10 days and its eye hurtled ashore in the early hours near Gulf Shores, Alabama, just west of Florida's panhandle.
Ivan
It was the third hurricane to hit Florida in just over a month during an unusually busy Atlantic hurricane season.
's top sustained winds were about 130 mph (210 kph) just before its eye hit land, and the wrath of the Texas-sized storm hit a huge stretch of the coast and inland in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana.
About 3 million people were without power and thousands huddled in shelters.