Wilma hammers Florida mainland
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-24 22:09

UNPRECEDENTED STORM SEASON

Wilma was the eighth hurricane to strike Florida in a little over 14 months, an unprecedented display of nature's fury.

The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, which ends on November 30, became the busiest since records began 150 years ago with the formation on Saturday of the 22nd named tropical cyclone, Alpha.

It also boasts three of the most intense Atlantic storms on record, with Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in August and killed 1,200, Rita, which hit the Texas-Louisiana border a few weeks later, and now Wilma, the storm with the lowest barometric pressure reading ever observed in the Atlantic.

In Mexico, Wilma caused severe damage in Cancun and on the island of Cozumel off the Yucatan.

Many of the 20,000 or more tourists stranded on the "Maya Riviera" were short of food and water and becoming increasingly frustrated on Sunday as they faced a fourth night in cramped shelters with no electricity or running water.

The storm killed seven people in Mexico, fewer than many had feared. It killed 10 people in Haiti last week after spawning mudslides in the impoverished Caribbean country.

In Cuba, 86-mph (138-kph) wind gusts howled through the deserted streets of Havana, knocking down lamp posts and smashing windows. Rough seas stirred up by Wilma crashed over Havana's famed Malecon sea wall after midnight, turning streets into rivers of knee-deep flood water. About 15 blocks were under water.

"We haven't seen it this bad in years," said resident Alfredo Saurez.