Katrina dumped nearly a foot of rain on Miami-Dade County, and a number of homes and businesses, boats in marinas in the area and airplanes at the Marathon and Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airports were damaged or destroyed. Officials worried about further flooding and wind damage as the slow-moving storm headed toward the Gulf of Mexico. After landfall, Katrina was downgraded to a tropical storm, but the winds picked up as it hit the waters in the Gulf of Mexico and it was classified as a hurricane once again.
At 9 a.m. this morning it was about 45 miles north of Key West, heading west at 6 mph. The possibility exists that the storm will pick up strength and make a second landfall in the Florida Panhandle.
Three of the people killed were hit by falling trees; the fourth died when the car he was driving struck a fallen tree. The family of five was boating on Thursday and never reached their destination, prompting a search before the weather made conditions impossible to continue.
"'Unfortunately that hurricane is sitting right on top of my search area," Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Smith told the Associated Press on Friday.
Katrina is the second hurricane to strike Florida this year. Parts of Florida are still recovering from last year's hurricane season, in which four hurricanes caused an estimated $46 billion in damage.
