Hurricane Charley, Upgraded To Category Four, Plows Toward U.S. Coast

MIAMI, Aug 13 (AFP) - Hurricane Charley on Friday raced toward the southeastern US state of Florida, where more than one million residents have been urged to leave their homes after the storm was upgraded to a major Category Four system, packing winds of up to 145 miles (233 kilometers) per hour.
At 1:00 pm (1700 GMT) the US National Hurricane Center announced that the storm had strengthened significantly and was 70 miles (113 kilometers) south-southwest of Fort Myers.
Earlier, the hurricane swept through Cuba for more than two hours, tearing roofs off houses, ripping up trees and causing power cuts. No fatalities were reported.
Florida authorities have urged more than one million people along the western coast to head inland.
The National Hurricane Center warned of storm surge flooding of up to 13 feet (3.9 meters) along the Florida coast, with potential flash floods and mudslides.
Winds could gain strength as they approach Florida's west coast.
"It will come in like a bulldozer," said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in western Miami-Dade County. "It could be very life threatening."
"This has the potential of being the one we've all been warning about," Florida Governor Jeb Bush said. "It's going to cut a swath through the state that's going to impact millions of people."
The hurricane was expected to hit the heavily developed Florida coast Friday afternoon as a powerful Category Four storm.
Some 10,000 people have already lost power in the Miami area.
The evacuation order by the state government extended up Florida's Gulf Coast to Tampa Bay, as Charley was predicted to strike cities as far north as Tampa and Jacksonville, Florida's northernmost east coast city of 800,000 people.
Authorities opened up schools and other public buildings to act as emergency shelters, but many people ignored the evacuation order.
Cedar Key Police Chief Dan Swogger said that, in his little coastal town at least, he did not expect a mass exodus. "The majority of people I've talked to have made it clear they're not going to be going."
Some 215,000 residents and 2,000 tourists were evacuated from at-risk areas in western Cuba as the storm passed the island.
In Havana, authorities set up shelters with food and doctors, and had shut off electricity as a precaution. Violent winds battered the Cuban capital, damaging buildings and bringing down power and telephone cables.
Cuba's national meteorology institute said there had been flooding in parts of the south coast provinces of Havana and Matanzas after waves of up to five meters (16.5 feet) were whipped up by the storm.
Hurricane Charley missed Jamaica but came close to the Cayman Islands, the small British colony, forcing the closure of its main airport on Thursday.
Charley came on the heels of Tropical Storm Bonnie, which hit Florida with heavy rains on Thursday.
Florida residents rushed to buy plywood to board up the windows of homes, restaurants and stores.
The weather forced oil companies to cut production by about 420,000 barrels on Wednesday, equal to one-quarter of the total production from the Gulf of Mexico, the Department of Interior said.
The hurricane also forced ChevronTexaco, BP, Shell and other companies to continue evacuating oil and gas platforms in the central and eastern Gulf on Thursday.