Four Dead, Five Missing As Katrina Plows Through

MIAMI -- Flooded streets resembled canals, sailboats sat on the sand, large trees were strewn across roads and a highway overpass lay in ruin Friday in the hours after Hurricane Katrina plodded across South Florida.

PICTURES: Katrina Damage

Four people were killed, a family of five was missing at sea and more than a million homes and businesses lost power before the storm moved west to emerge over the Gulf of Mexico. Work crews scrambled to clear roads and repair utility lines.

As of 9 a.m., here's how the power outage numbers break down:

Miami-Dade County: 657,578
Broward County: 475,133:
Palm Beach County: 22,877

FPL officials say 11,700 workers are on the job to get power restored to customers. About 7,600 of those workers are state employees and 4,100 are from out of state.

"We urge our customers to take extra precautions to be safe," said Geisha Williams, FPL vice president of distribution. "Please don't let children play outside, especially in standing water where a downed power line could be energized and dangerous."

As of 2 p.m. today, about 3,000 customers in the upper keys are without power, according to the Keys Electric Co-op. That number was 5,000 this morning.

IMAGES: Viewer Submitted Katrina Damage Pics 1

The state's troubles were not over, however. More heavy rain and strong wind was still lashing the Florida Keys and was likely in South Florida on Friday, and Katrina was expected to grow stronger and perhaps make a second landfall in the Florida Panhandle early next week.

The National Hurricane Center said interests from Florida to Mississippi should monitor the storm.

IMAGES: Viewer Submitted Katrina Damage Pics 2

"It's going to be a similar track to Dennis, potentially," meteorologist Chris Sisko said, referencing the hurricane that hit near Pensacola Beach on July 9.

Katrina's first Florida land strike came Thursday night along the line between Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

Rain fell in horizontal sheets, seas were estimated at 15 feet and sustained winds were measured at 80 mph as the hurricane made landfall. As of 9 a.m. Friday, some power had been restored, but more than 1.1 million Florida Power & Light customers were still in the dark. The vast majority were in the two counties.

"This place went bananas last night," said John Vazquez, 62, of Hallandale, who rode out the storm in his oceanfront condominium.

Katrina had weakened into a tropical storm over land, but strengthened over the warm waters of the gulf and became a hurricane again early Friday with top sustained winds of 80 mph. At 11 a.m. EDT, it was about 45 miles northwest of Key West and 75 miles south-southwest of Naples. It moving erratically toward the west at 7 mph in the Gulf of Mexico.

Gov. Jeb Bush urged residents of the Panhandle and northwest Florida -- areas hit by Hurricane Ivan last year and Hurricane Dennis this year -- to monitor the storm and make the necessary preparations. Bush said he asked for a federal disaster assistance for Miami-Dade and Broward.

President Bush was being given regular updates on the storm and the Federal Emergency Management Agency was ready to help state officials decide whether federal help will be needed, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said. Federal resources already in place include food, water and ice, he said.

Katrina left a trail of mayhem in its wake along the southeast coast, despite its status as a Category 1 storm as it made landfall.

"Maybe we can get rid of the phrase minimal hurricane," state meteorologist Ben Nelson said Friday. "There is no such thing as a minimal hurricane."

Street flooding and debris strewn on the roads made many streets impassable, a situation made worse by power outages that affected street lights throughout Miami-Dade and Broward. Traffic was snarled along several miles of U.S. Highway 1 in Miami-Dade.

In Key Biscayne, dozens of families were forced to evacuate their homes after they became flooded by 3 feet of water.

Three mobile home parks in Davie sustained considerable damage, including lost roofs. One person was trapped inside a mobile home, but officials did not know whether the person was injured, according to the Broward Emergency Management Agency.

An overpass under construction in Miami-Dade County collapsed onto a highway, authorities said. No injuries were reported, but the freeway -- a main east-west thoroughfare -- was closed for 20 blocks.

Several sailboats had washed up onto the beach on Key Biscayne on Friday morning, while others that were anchored in the harbor smashed against boats docked at a marina. Most of the beached sailboats lay tipped on their sides, some with their ripped sails flapping in the wind. About 10 boats at the Coconut Grove marina had been pulled from their moorings and thrown on the rocks.

Longtime Key Biscayne resident Raul Vidal said water reached halfway up his driveway and he had minor flooding through a leaky window, but no major damage.

"This is a piece of cake. This is just an inconvenience. It's nature's way of doing landscaping for you -- cleaning up trees that are overgrown," the 53-year-old banker said.

About 15 to 20 small planes were damaged at Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport, said aviation spokesman Mark Henderson.

In the Florida Keys, a tornado damaged a hanger and a number of airplanes at the airport in Marathon, according to Monroe County Sheriff's Office. Two nearby homes were also damaged. In Tavernier in the upper Keys, part of the roof of a lumber company collapsed, deputies said.

The hurricane was hindering the Coast Guard's search early Friday for a family of five who went out boating Thursday from Marathon and never reached their destination of Cape Coral on Florida's southwest Gulf coast.

Edward and Tina Larson and their three children, ages 17, 14 and 4, departed on their 24-foot pleasure craft at 6:45 a.m. and have not been heard from.

"Unfortunately that hurricane is sitting right on top of my search area," Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Smith said Friday.

Three people were killed by falling trees: A man in his 20s in Fort Lauderdale was crushed by a falling tree as he sat alone in his car; a 54-year-old man was killed by a falling tree in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Plantation; and a woman who was struck by a tree died at a hospital in Hollywood.

A 79-year-old man in Cooper City also died when his car struck a tree, officials said. Three storm-related trauma patients were being treated in Hollywood, including a driver in critical condition after a tree fell on his car, said Frank Sacco, CEO of Memorial Healthcare System.

The hurricane emptied the usually bustling streets of Miami Beach, a tourist haven with its nightlife and restaurants. The city is hosting celebrities and partygoers in town for the MTV Video Music Awards. MTV called off its pre-awards festivities Thursday and Friday.

"It's like a ghost town out here," said Mark Darress, concierge at The Astor Hotel in Miami Beach.

Yet dozens of surfers and spectators lined the beaches to take advantage of the massive waves on the normally placid seas.

"This is the best of both worlds because it'll bring great waves, but it is not at all dangerous," said surfer Kurt Johnston, 22, of Davie.

Tourists and others hoping to get out of town before the storm were stranded as airlines canceled flights at Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports, which both closed Thursday night. The Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport was reopening Friday, but flights were limited. Miami International Airport officials have not decided when it will reopen.

Katrina, which formed Wednesday over the Bahamas, was the second hurricane to strike Florida this year and the first to make a direct hit on Broward County since a destructive Category 4 hurricane in 1947.

Four hurricanes hit Florida last year, causing an estimated $46 billion in damage across the country.

Katrina is the 11th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. That's seven more than typically have formed by now in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane center said. The season ends Nov. 30.