Dennis the Menace rips across Florida

Last updated at 08:13 11 July 2005


Hurricane Dennis swamped homes, ripped off roofs and felled power lines and trees when it hurtled into northwest Florida yesterday with 120mph winds, strewing debris anew over an area recovering from a devastating storm last year.

But despite fears among coastal residents of a repeat of the widespread damage from September's Hurricane Ivan, the hurricane delivered a less punishing blow.

'We dodged the bullet on the most part although our beach has suffered badly again,' said Sara Comander, a spokeswoman for Walton County east of Pensacola, adding most damage would be erosion to the beach.

Dennis weakened rapidly as it moved north northwest through Alabama. By last night, it was a tropical storm with its top winds down to 50 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The storm could still cause heavy rain and possible tornadoes over central and northern Alabama, parts of Mississippi and the western Tennessee Valley, the center warned.

Dennis cut power to almost half a million customers along the coast, peeled some aluminum roofs off like sardine cans, pushed at least one home into the ocean and turned some streets into rivers.

There were no reports of people killed directly by the storm although officials in Walton County, Florida, said a young boy was killed on Friday when his parents drove into him while evacuating their home ahead of the storm.

Several houses and condominiums were badly damaged on Holiday Isle, offshore from Destin, said Kathleen Mitnacca, an emergency management spokeswoman in Okaloosa County.

'There is a lot of infrastructure damage. One house, a nice one, is in the Gulf now,' Mitnacca said.

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