 |
Part of the kitchen is
all what is left of a house in Punta de
Carta, in the Cuban province of Pinar del
Rio, September 14, 2004. Hurricane Ivan brushed Cuba's western tip on
Monday, causing limited damage to houses but the flooding of
coastal
areas.
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Hundreds of thousands of people along the U.S. coast from New Orleans
to northwest Florida were told to leave their homes on September 14 as
deadly Hurricane Ivan roared into the Gulf of Mexico after grazing western
Cuba.
Ivan, one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record, killed at
least 68 people on a weeklong rampage through the Caribbean as it
caused widespread damage in Grenada, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
It ripped off roofs and downed trees and power lines when it roared
past Cuba on Monday night, but the island was spared a direct hit and
there were no reported casualties.
Ivan, carrying winds of up to 140 mph, threatened an area of several
hundred miles from the sugary beaches of the Florida Panhandle west
through coastal Alabama and Mississippi to the flood-prone, historic jazz
city of New Orleans, where officials told residents to get out.
"This is a very dangerous storm," said Mayor Ray Nagin, adding that
Ivan's hurricane-force winds extended so far out that the city could
suffer even if it struck 100 miles away. "We're asking people to consider
leaving the city if you have the wherewithal to do that."
Metropolitan New Orleans has a population of about 1.5 million.
Storm-weary Florida authorities, preparing for a possible third
hurricane strike in just over a month, told about 543,000 people to
evacuate mobile homes and flood-prone coastal areas in at least 10
counties in the western Panhandle.
Oil companies plucked thousands of workers from offshore rigs and shut
down some refineries and offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, home of
about a quarter of U.S. oil and gas output. Ivan's menacing presence
pushed up world oil prices, which rose by more than 50 cents a barrel.
The hurricane was forecast to thunder into the Gulf coast late on
Wednesday or early on Thursday, bringing storm surge flooding of up to 16
feet above normal tide levels.
It weakened slightly as it moved north but was still a dangerous
Category 4 storm on the five-step hurricane intensity scale.
Its top winds were down from a peak of 165 mph on Saturday, when the
U.S. National Hurricane Center said it was the sixth-strongest Atlantic
hurricane on record. But its hurricane-force winds extended out 105
miles.
(Agencies) |
来势汹汹的飓风“伊万”在袭击古巴西部后，又咆哮着冲入了墨西哥湾。9月14日，几十万居住在从新奥尔良到佛罗里达西北部海岸沿线的美国居民接到预警后被迫离开家园。
“伊万”是有记载的最强劲的大西洋飓风之一。这场飓风在加勒比海肆虐的一个星期内，造成至少68人死亡，同时在格林纳达、牙买加和开曼群岛也造成了大范围破坏。
周一晚上，飓风呼啸着掠过古巴，所到之处屋顶被掀翻，树木被推倒，电线被切断。所幸该岛国免遭飓风的正面袭击。目前还没有有关人员伤亡的报道。
目前飓风“伊万”正以每小时140英里的速度前进，威胁着幅员几百英里的地区。“伊万”从佛罗里达州狭长地带的“甜蜜海滩”向西推进，横穿阿拉巴马州和密西西比州沿海一带，直到洪水易发区、历史上著名的爵士乐城市新奥尔良，该市官员告诫居民（尽快）撤离。
（新奥尔良）市长雷·纳金说：“这是一场极其危险的风暴。”他还补充说“伊万”飓风的风力可以波及到很远的地区，即使它在袭击离城市100英里的地区时，新奥尔良也会遭到破坏。“我们建议市民如果有足够的资金，应该赶快离开这座城市。”
新奥尔良约有150万人口。
佛罗里达当局已经被连日的暴风雨折腾得疲惫不堪。他们正在为短短一个多月内可能发生的第三次飓风袭击做准备，通知位于佛罗里达狭长地带西部至少10个县的54.3万人口撤离可移动式房屋和沿海洪水易发区。
石油公司从海上钻井台撤回了数千名工人，并关闭了位于墨西哥湾的一些炼油厂和海上钻井。墨西哥湾的石油和天然气的产量占到美国总产量的四分之一。飓风“伊万”的威胁使得全世界石油价格上涨，每桶石油的价格上涨了50多美分。
这场飓风预计将在周三晚或周四早上席卷墨西哥湾沿岸，随之而来的暴风雨将使水位超出正常潮汐水位16英尺。
目前，飓风仍在向北移动，风势逐渐减弱。但是在衡量飓风强度的五级指标中，仍处于危险的四级风暴强度。
上周六，飓风“伊万”中势头最强劲的一股风力开始回落，它的最高时速曾达到每小时165英里。美国国家飓风中心表示，这是有史以来风力第六强的大西洋飓风，但是其风力波及到方圆105英里的区域。
（中国日报网站译） |
Updated: 2004-09-16 09:52