US News
Hurricane roars up Mexican coast; Ernesto makes Florida landfall
By DPA
Aug 30, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Washington - Hurricane John strengthened into a category 3 storm menacing Mexico's Pacific coast as Tropical Storm Ernesto made landfall early Wednesday on the Florida peninsula.

John was expected to grow further in fury and on Wednesday could become a category 4 storm on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, the US National Hurricane Center forecast, adding that while its eye was not expected to make landfall, it was likely to travel up the coast, lashing it with hurricane-force winds and intense rains and waves.

Ernesto, meanwhile, hit Plantation Key island late Tuesday before moving on shore on the Florida peninsula early Wednesday with heavy rains and winds of 75 kilometres per hour. It was weaker than forecast, leading emergency responders and residents who had boarded up windows and laid down sandbags relieved.

Unlike John, Ernesto had weakened as it crossed Cuba and headed to Florida, and after the National Hurricane Center said it was unlikely to regain hurricane strength over the peninsula, the US space agency NASA reversed an order to move the space shuttle Atlantis to a protective hanger and hours later sent it back to its Cape Canaveral launch pad in hopes of a launch next week to the International Space Station.

Ernesto was expected to move north-north-west over Florida for the next day or so and was expected to move back over the Atlantic, where it could regain hurricane strength before hitting the Carolinas, the Miami-based Hurricane Center said.

In the Pacific, John, which strengthened from a category-1 hurricane Tuesday, was packing maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometres per hour with gusts of 220 kilometres per hour as it moved in a north-westly direction parallel to the coast from its position early Wednesday south of Acapulco, Mexico's National Meteorological Service said.

It warned residents near the coast to move inland as waves more than 4 metres high were expected while forecasters in Miami predicted 10 to 30 centimetres of rain up the coast and warned of life-threatening flash floods and mudslides in the mountains.

The resorts of Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos were expected to feel the affects of John, the sixth Pacific hurricane of the season.