Hurricane Center

MIAMI -- Hurricane Emily picked itself up yesterday and began regaining power after a day's demotion to tropical storm rank.It regained it and then some, drawing energy from the heat of the subtropical Atlantic Ocean. The storm's return to hurricane force was announced by the National Hurricane Center at 7 p.m. Even before then, forecasts said it was not only coming back but growing a lot stronger than before: Steady wind speed past 90 mph with gusts faster than 100 are expected by 2 p.m. today.

After 1995's near-record hurricane season, experts figured that 1996 couldn't be as bad. But it was worse, killing more people and spawning stronger storms.This year, hurricanes have caused $4.1 billion in damage in the United States alone and killed 147 people in the United States, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean islands, according to preliminary estimates from the National Hurricane Center.And with this year's season set to draw to a close Saturday, experts are already looking ahead with apprehension to next year.

Tropical Storm Isaac is gaining strength and organization just south of the Dominican Republic as of Friday morning, and forecasters are still expecting it to follow a northwestern path into the Gulf of Mexico. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph as of 11 a.m. The latest track takes it over eastern Haiti and across Cuba as it heads toward making landfall in the U.S. somewhere between New Orleans and southern Florida. The most likely route as forecast this morning takes the storm to the Florida panhandle, though that isn't until early Wednesday, so it could change again.

MIAMI - Resigned and frustrated Floridians began bracing yesterday for Hurricane Jeanne, which forecasters said should start pounding the state's east coast with whipping wind and rain by late this afternoon. Ports were closing, and shelters were opening. Sandbags were ready, and curfews set. Hotels filled up, and emergency-response trucks rolled. The anxiety mounted yesterday as nearly a million coastal residents and mobile-home dwellers from Miami-Dade to Flagler counties were ordered to begin evacuating today to avoid the fourth hurricane to torment the Sunshine State in six weeks.

A federal employee accused of putting millions of veterans and medical providers at risk for identity theft tried to cover up the amount of information lost from a Birmingham, Ala., research facility, according to a report from the Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general. The employee, an information technology specialist who was not identified in the audit, lied to investigators about what was on an external hard drive that disappeared in January, the inspector general's report said.

MIAMI -- Forecasters reached the last name on this year's list when Tropical Storm Wilma, a likely future hurricane that could threaten the U.S. Gulf Coast, formed in the Caribbean yesterday. "This is the first time we've ever gotten 21 storms" in one season, said Mark McInerney, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center here. There were 21 tropical storms in 1933, McInerney said, but they weren't given names in those days. Because the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z aren't used, any other storms that form during the busy 2005 Atlantic season, which ends Nov. 30, will be given names from the Greek alphabet, starting with Alpha.

COCOA, Fla. - Officials ordered all residents and tourists to leave the southern half of the Florida Keys yesterday as Hurricane Dennis, an unusually powerful July storm, attained "major" status as it slogged north in warm Caribbean waters. Packing sustained winds of 115 mph and classified as a Category 3 hurricane, Dennis could subject the lower Keys to dangerous winds and a 3- to 6-foot storm surge by this afternoon, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. "We recommend you pack up, secure your property as best you can and leave," Monroe County Sheriff's Deputy Becky Herrin said her department advised those in the southernmost Keys.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Taking aim on South Florida yesterday, Tropical Storm Katrina threatened to build into an 80-mph hurricane, unleash torrential rains and cause severe flooding. Landfall is projected for about 11 a.m. tomorrow, and the region should begin feeling the storm's effects this morning. By Sunday, it is expected to have dumped 6 to 12 inches of rain, with up to 20 inches in some areas. "We're going to get swamped here is what it amounts to," said meteorologist Jim Lushine of the National Weather Service in Miami, which issued a flood watch through Saturday night.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Tropical Storm Emily likely will spin into a hurricane by today and continue molding this unprecedented season into a remarkable stretch of hurricane history. Emily is the fifth named storm to form in July, the first time that has happened since the United States began keeping storm records in 1851. Emily could also become the second major hurricane to develop this month, after Dennis, which struck near Pensacola on Sunday. Late yesterday, Emily was in the Atlantic, 350 miles southeast of Barbados, churning west at 20 mph with sustained winds of 50 mph. The long-range forecast takes the system south of the Dominican Republic on Friday, near Jamaica on Saturday and south of western Cuba on Sunday as a Category 3 system, packing 115 mph winds.

HOUSTON - Tropical Storm Erika rumbled ashore near the U.S.-Mexico border yesterday but quickly petered out, allowing Gulf Coast residents, still cleaning up from the destruction of last month's powerful Hurricane Claudette, to exhale after days of anxiety. The storm had been expected to develop into a low-grade hurricane. It might have - but just barely, said Lixion Avila, an official with the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The highest recorded winds received by the Hurricane Center were 70 mph, Avila said, short of the 74 mph threshold for a formal hurricane declaration.