4 now dead from Katrina

[Brent]

Four Dead As Katrina Slams South Florida
Hurricane Makes Landfall In Hallandale Beach

POSTED: 5:09 pm EDT August 23, 2005
UPDATED: 12:54 am EDT August 26, 2005

MIAMI -- Hurricane Katrina toppled trees, peeled off roofs and left more than 1.3 million customers without power as it slammed into Florida's densely populated southeastern coast Thursday with driving rains and sustained winds of 80 mph. Four people were killed, three by falling trees.

[Sean in New Orleans]

Unfortunately, it appears this storm may have caught S. Florida off guard. Most people don't take Category 1 storms very seriously, and the news of 4 deaths, alone, is evidence, any hurricane needs to be taken very seriously....

[krysof]

Most people worry when its a Cat 3 or higher, but that's the reason people die. They basically couldn't care less if it's a Cat 1 and suddenly a tree falls and they are killed.

[gilbert88]

This sucks... I hope the people in the Keys and nearby take care, ideally a Cat. 1 should cause no fatalities..

[Coredesat]

Interesting fact - with 4 fatalities, this Cat 1 has caused more direct deaths in Florida than Jeanne did last year as a Cat 3. Jeanne only directly killed 3 people in Florida last year (but did kill 1 person in South Carolina, 1 in Virginia, and 1 in Puerto Rico, not to mention the thousands that died in Hispaniola...I don't want to imagine how it would have been had Katrina made landfall there at some point ).

Even if you go on and count the SC, VA, and PR deaths, Katrina is still almost as deadly as Jeanne was in the U.S.

EDITED to emphasize "in Florida", even though I mentioned Hispaniola.

[Thunder44]

You have more people getting killed or hurt, not because the storm is worse than a Cat 3. Because more people don't take the storm seriously and they are wondering outside. You don't need 100 mph winds to have tree limbs or debris hitting you.

[HurricaneGirl]

So true. A boy was killed in Orange Park last year from a falling tree during high winds from Jeanne.

[tronbunny]

You have more people getting killed or hurt, not because the storm is worse than a Cat 3. Because more people don't take the storm seriously and they are wondering outside. You don't need 100 mph winds to have tree limbs or debris hitting you.

Yup!!!
This is why we need a revision of the warning system.
the safir-simpson is just not adequate or detailed enough to motivate folks to take proper precautions.
I'm getting comfortable with the new (experimental) graphical threats they're posting on the local nws/noaa websites.

[Myersgirl]

Family of four missing, they left Marathon by boat for Fort Myers yesterday

[Dr. Jonah Rainwater]

What a foolish trip to make. Now Katrina is directly over the Coast Guard's search area...rescue operations won't be feasable until this slow-mover gets out of there in the next few days...highly unlikely any of them survived.