Storm leaves 12 dead after hitting the coast

Ivan remains a Category 1 hurricane after landfall.
GULF SHORES, Ala. (AP) -- Hurricane Ivan slammed ashore early today with winds of 130 mph, packing deadly tornadoes and a powerful punch of waves and rain that threatened to swamp communities from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle. At least 12 deaths were attributed to the storm.
Many of the millions of Gulf Coast residents who spent a frightening night in shelters and boarded-up homes were emerging this morning to find that Ivan was not the catastrophe they had feared. Still, forecasters said the worst could be yet to come, as up to 15 inches of rain were expected as the storm moved inland.
Downtown Mobile was deserted early today. The historic oak-tree-lined Government Street was blocked with downed tree limbs, metal signs, roofing material and other storm debris.
"We were wondering at first if we made the right choice or not," said Marc Oliver, 38, who rode out the storm with his family in Mobile. "We had some trees down in our yard and roofing damage, other than that, we came out pretty good."
Oliver boarded up his windows of his brick home and spent the night with his wife, 7-year-old son and brother-in-law, Robert Driver, moving from room to room as the winds shifted.
"The good Lord was looking out for us," Driver said.
The storm weakened as it moved inland, but remained a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 80 mph more than four hours after landfall.
Damage
Ivan knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people, toppled trees, ripped off roofs and sent street signs hurtling through the night. In the beach resort town of Gulf Shores, where the storm's eye blew ashore, the sky had a bright green glow as electrical transformers blew.
"We have never seen a hurricane of this size come into Alabama," said Gov. Bob Riley, who earlier asked President Bush to declare much of the state a disaster area, a request that was granted.
Two people were killed and more than 200 homes were damaged when at least five tornadoes roared through Florida's Bay County. Five people were killed when another tornado struck homes in Blountstown, Fla., and an 8-year-old girl died after being crushed by a tree that fell onto her mobile home in Milton, Fla. Her parents were unharmed.
"You want to see the natural hand of God firsthand, but you don't realize how strong it is," said Kevin Harless, 32, who was sightseeing in Panama City Beach, Fla., around the time of the tornadoes.
Four ailing evacuees -- a terminally ill cancer patient, two nursing home patients and a homebound patient -- reportedly died after being taken from their storm-threatened south Louisiana homes to safer parts of the state.
More misery ahead
Max Mayfield, the director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, warned that the misery would spread as Ivan moves across the Southeast in the hours and days ahead. "I hate to think about what's going to happen inland," he said.
At 8 a.m. EDT, Ivan was centered about 90 miles west-southwest of Montgomery, Ala., and was moving north at 17 mph. Forecasters projected a path that could take Ivan on a northeastern march across most of the South and parts of the Midwest.
A hurricane warning for New Orleans was lifted early today, but one remained in effect from the mouth of the Pearl River in eastern Louisiana to Apalachicola, Fla. As of 8 a.m., hurricane-force winds extended out 50 miles from the storm, which earlier killed at least 68 people across the Caribbean.
Storm surge
National Hurricane Center forecasters said land east of where Ivan's eye passed was experiencing storm surge of 10 to 16 feet, topped by large and dangerous battering waves.
"We've had calls from folks saying, 'The water is rising, can you come get me?' Unfortunately we can't send anybody out. The storm is at its worst point now," Sonya Smith, a spokeswoman for Florida's Escambia County emergency management agency, said early today.
The storm's northward track spared New Orleans a direct hit. Parts of the city -- particularly vulnerable because much of it is below sea level -- saw only sporadic, light rain overnight, though wind gusts reached tropical storm strength.
City officials had scrambled to get people out of harm's way, putting some 1,100 people in the cavernous Louisiana Superdome and urging others to move to higher floors in tall buildings.
At least 260,000 homes and businesses were without power in Alabama, 36,500 in Louisiana, 70,000 in Mississippi. More than 300,000 customers were without power in the four westernmost Florida Panhandle counties. Florida was still trying to restore power to about 160,000 hit by Hurricanes Charley and Frances in recent weeks.
Ivan's waves -- some up to 25 feet -- destroyed homes along the Florida coast Wednesday. A buoy about 300 miles south of Panama City registered one wave of 50 feet high.