Sept. 16, 2004
Thursday's Developments Associated With Hurricane Ivan:

• Ivan slammed ashore early Thursday in Gulf Shores, Ala., with winds of 130 mph, but weakened as it moved inland, packing winds of 115 mph about two hours after it came ashore. Gulf Shores Mayor David Bodenhamer said streets were flooded and trees and power lines were down everywhere. Bodenhamer and the mayor of nearby Orange Beach, Ala., said it wasn't safe and closed re-entry to residents until further notice.
  
  
• Max Mayfield, the director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, warned that the misery would spread as Ivan moves across the Southeast in the hours and days ahead. "I hate to think about what's going to happen inland," he said.
  
  
• A hurricane warning for New Orleans was lifted early Thursday, after 11th-hour shift spared the Big Easy a direct hit. However, a hurricane warning remained in effect from the mouth of the Pearl River along the Louisiana-Mississippi state line to Apalachicola, Fla.
  
  
• More than 210,000 homes and businesses were without power in Alabama, 36,500 in Louisiana and 50,000 in Mississippi. More than 300,000 customers were without power in the four westernmost Florida Panhandle counties: Florida was still trying to restore power to about 160,000 hit by hurricanes Charley and Frances.
  
  
• In Fort Walton Beach, Fla., a nursing home lost its generator power and reported that six patients desperately needed oxygen. An emergency medical crew drove through the 90 mph winds to deliver portable oxygen tanks.
  
  
• The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for as far away as North Carolina, which suffered heavy flooding last week from the remnants of Hurricane Frances. The heavy rain also could trigger mud and rock slides.
  
  
• Two people were killed and more than 200 homes were damaged when at least five tornadoes roared through Florida's Bay County before the hurricane reached land. Four ailing evacuees - a terminally ill cancer patient, two nursing home patients and a homebound patient - reportedly died after being taken from their storm-threatened south Louisiana homes to safer parts of the state.
  
  
• More trouble lingered out in the Atlantic. Tropical Storm Jeanne could become a hurricane Thursday in the Caribbean as moves westward across the north coast of Puerto Rico. It could be near Florida's east coast as early as the weekend.
  

© 2004 The Associated Press.

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