Ivan hits Gulf Coast, Florida

GULF SHORES, Ala. -- Hurricane Ivan slammed into the Gulf Coast early Thursday with 130 mph winds, launching tornadoes, washing out a major bridge and hurling metal signs through the night. At least 18 U.S. deaths were blamed on the storm, but officials said the toll and the damage could have been even worse.\nUp to 15 inches of rain were expected as the storm moved inland. It remained a Category 1 hurricane with wind of 75 mph eight hours after its 2 a.m. CDT landfall before weakening to a tropical storm. At 1 p.m., its sustained wind speed was 70 mph.\nIvan killed 70 people as it passed through the Caribbean.\nThe storm killed 13 people in Florida and was blamed on another five deaths in Louisiana and Mississippi.\nFor Florida, it was the third storm in five weeks. Hurricane Charley struck the state Aug. 13 and Frances on Sept. 5; the two caused dozens of deaths and billions of dollars in damage.\nIvan knocked out power to more than 1 1/2 million customers in four states, toppled trees and ripped off roofs. In the beach resort town of Gulf Shores, where the storm's eye came ashore, the sky glowed bright green as electrical transformers blew.\nStill, many of the millions of Gulf Coast residents who spent a frightening night in shelters and boarded-up homes emerged Thursday morning to find that Ivan was not the catastrophe they had feared.\n"Ivan was nowhere near as bad as Frederic -- not even close," Mobile Police Chief Sam Cochran said, referring to the 1979 storm that devastated the Alabama coast. "I think we were really spared and blessed."\nNew Orleans, especially vulnerable to storms because much of it lies below sea level, had wind and just a touch of rain.\n"Leaves in the pool -- that's it," said Shane Eschete, assistant general manager of the Inn on Bourbon Street. "It won't take us long to clean that up."\nDowntown Mobile was deserted early Thursday. Historic, oak-tree-lined Government Street was blocked with downed tree limbs, metal signs, roofing material and other storm debris.\n"We were wondering at first if we made the right choice or not," said Marc Oliver, 38, who rode out the storm with his family in Mobile, moving from room to room as the wind shifted. "We had some trees down in our yard and roofing damage. Other than that, we came out pretty good."\nPresident Bush signed disaster declarations Thursday for Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, and was awaiting paperwork from Florida, press secretary Scott McClellan said.\nIn Florida, two people were killed and more than 200 homes were damaged when at least five tornadoes roared through Bay County. Another tornado killed four people when it struck homes in Blountstown, Fla., and an 8-year-old girl died after being crushed by a tree that fell onto her mobile home in Milton, Fla. Her parents were unharmed.\nSix people were killed in Escambia County.\n"You want to see the natural hand of God firsthand, but you don't realize how strong it is," said Kevin Harless, 32, who was sightseeing in Panama City Beach, Fla., around the time of the tornadoes.\nFour ailing evacuees, including a terminally ill cancer patient, died after being taken from their storm-threatened southern Louisiana homes to safer parts of the state.\nPart of a bridge on Interstate 10, the major east-west highway through Florida's Panhandle, was washed away.\nMax Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, warned that the misery would spread as Ivan moved across the Southeast. "I hate to think about what's going to happen inland," he said.