Floyd on Radar \nMIAMI - The exodus went in earnest as over two million coastal dwellers from north and central Florida to the Carolinas have high-tailed it inland to escape Hurricane Floyd - but for now, ia2000 will proceed as scheduled in Miami until further notice. \nFloyd on Satellite
The evacuations are said to be the largest peacetime evacuations in the history of the United States.
After wreaking havoc in the Bahamas, Floyd began battering northern Florida this morning and fanning about 100 miles out to sea. The storm has been downgraded to a Category 3 storm - capable of damaging or destroying small homes, leveling mobile homes, and flooding coastal areas - and was expected to make land near the South-North Carolina border early Thursday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center.
"We're keeping a close eye on the storm situation in Florida," says Darren Roberts, assistant publisher of AVN, which sponsors the ia2000 Convention scheduled for 1-3 October in Miami. "We're still going ahead with the show as planned." And AVN On The Net will keep you posted on the latest developments in that regard, too.
Two million people in Florida and Georgia were ordered to evacuate, even though Georgia could well miss the brunt of Floyd's fury. South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges ordered his state's entire coast to do so as well. So were coastal residents in portions of North Carolina, with Virginia expected to post orders later Wednesday, according to Reuters.
President Clinton - who was en route back to the U.S. from an Australian/New Zealand visit and was canceling a planned Hawaii stopover - was expected back in Washington later Wednesday.
States of emergency have been declared in all five states.
Floyd's entire system composition is said to be as large as the state of Texas, which analysts say would make it slow to weaken and put much of the Eastern seaboard in peril even after making landfall. In Georgia and South Carolina alone, this is the most severe tropical storm since Hurricane Hugo a decade ago.
Hurricane warnings took effect from Sebastian Inlet in central Florida to the border shared by North Carolina and Virginia - over 1,000 miles of coastline.
Florida Governor Jeb Bush says about 100,000 Floridians are without electric power and 40,000 are in evacuation shelters. The U.S. space shuttles have been moved to structures built to hold up against hurricane winds up to 125 mph, and the Kennedy Space Center itself is empty for now. There was no significant damage reported from there.
