MIAMI (AP/Reuters):
WICKED WILMA triggered mudslides that killed up to 10 people in Haiti as the hurricane strengthened rapidly last night and headed for the Gulf of Mexico on a path toward storm-weary Florida.
At 8:00 p.m. (midnight GMT) yesterday, Wilma had top sustained winds near 100 mph (160 kph), up from 50 mph (80 kph) a day earlier.
The United States National Hurricane Center's long-range forecast track, which has a wide margin of error, had it crossing southern Florida on Saturday. The state was hit by four hurricanes last year and has been struck by hurricanes Dennis, Katrina and Rita this year.
The hurricane is on a course that would brush the Cayman Islands, Central America, drench Cancun and then belt Cuba and Florida as a major cyclone.
The government of flood-prone Honduras warned that Wilma posed "an imminent threat to life and property of the people of the Atlantic coast." Neighbouring Nicaragua also declared an alert.
CUBA ON RED ALERT
Cuba issued a hurricane watch for the western end of the island from Matanzas to Pinar del Rio, as well as the Isle of Youth. Mexico issued a hurricane watch for its northern Caribbean coast from Punta Allen to Cabo Catoche.
The hurricane's outer bands brought rain, high winds and heavy surf to the Atlantic border of Honduras and Nicaragua border, but Honduran emergency officials said they had not yet ordered any evacuations.
Early projections show the storm was likely to rake Honduras and the Cayman Islands before it turns toward the narrow Yucatan Channel between western Cuba and the Cancun region of Mexico. It was then aimed at Florida.
"It does look like it poses a significant threat to Florida by the weekend. Of course, these are four- and five-day forecasts, so things can change," said Dan Brown, a meteorologist at the hurricane centre.
In the Cayman Islands, authorities urged businesses to close early yesterday to give employees time to prepare for the storm. Schools were ordered to close today.
