


Florida braces for the arrival of Hurricane Dennis as governor Jeb Bush announced a state of emergency on a televised press conference Friday afternoon at 2:00 EST.  Dennis weakened slightly after making landfall in Cuba and now packs sustained winds of 145 miles per hour. Thousands have fled the Florida Keys under a mandatory evacuation order where the storm is expected to strike sometime this evening.
The storm wobbled slightly after arriving in Cuba where it claimed up to three lives. Ham radio operators reported that most power lines are down in the province of Cienfuegos, where a major seaport is located on Cuba's southern coast. 
According to Reuters, 18 lives were claimed by the storm in Haiti yesterday when it passed over that island nation.
The storm is expected to continue on a north-westerly path that will brush the southern tip of Florida and head up the state's Gulf of Mexico coastline, where warm gulf waters could fuel the storm and raise it to a Category 5 storm.
Speculation has begun on the possibility of higher gas prices as gulf oil refineries are threatened.
Hurricane Dennis comes quickly on the heels of 3-day ago Tropical Storm Cindy, in what is noted as record storm activity for this early in the hurricane season. 
Share this: 





Public domain
Public domain
false
false

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.
Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.
Florida declares 'state of emergency', Hurricane Dennis category 4 storm