Katrina Gaining Strength In Gulf

Residents of northwest Florida and other parts of the Gulf Coast nervously monitored the path of Hurricane Katrina on Saturday as weary South Florida homeowners cleaned mud out of homes flooded by the storm and street crews canoed through miles of inundated roadways.

Katrina threatened an encore visit as early as Monday after ripping across southern Florida and killing seven people. But forecasters were uncertain of exactly where it might strike, saying the storm could make landfall anywhere from Florida to Louisiana.

"The people of Pensacola don't need another one. They just don't need it," sighed Keith Smith, 46, as he tightened the straps on a travel trailer that was dislodged just weeks ago by Hurricane Dennis. "If it comes here I'm going to have to pull up stakes and run again."

Katrina was a Category 3 storm Saturday with 115 mph sustained wind and higher gusts, and it had appeared to be turning toward the Louisiana-Mississippi coastline. Forecasters said it will likely gain strength over the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico.

By 8 a.m. Saturday, the eye of the hurricane was located about 180 miles west of Key West, or about 430 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. It was moving west at nearly 7 mph and was expected to gradually turn toward the west-northwest, the hurricane center said.

The storm appeared to have grown, with hurricane-force wind extending up to 40 miles out from the center, the center said.

Utility crews were still working to restore power to 850,000 customers, down from more than 1 million. Federal and state officials were expected to begin assessing damage in South Florida on Saturday and get more supplies like ice, water and food to hard-hit areas. The state had opened distribution centers in south Miami-Dade to provide free water and ice for those without electricity.

CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann reports that despite the threat from dangling power lines,

If Katrina hit at Category 4 strength, as forecasters say it could, it would mean sustained winds topping 130 mph.

Florida has been hit by six hurricanes since last August. The state's northwest was slammed by Hurricane Ivan last year, then again by Hurricane Dennis this year, both Category 3 storms.

Katrina was a Category 1 with 80 mph wind when it hit South Florida on Thursday; it could return by Monday as a Category 4 with 130 mph wind, forecasters say.

Colleen Singleton, 45, a bartender at Bobby D's Beach Bar in Pensacola Beach, said Katrina could be the final straw.

"If it's anything near Ivan and I lose everything I've worked for with the blood, sweat and tears in the house and the furnishings and everything, I've just got to move off the coast somewhere," she said.

Gov. Jeb Bush said he expected a response Saturday to his request for disaster aid for Florida. Risk modeling companies have said early estimates of insured damage from Katrina's first landfall range from $600 million to $2 billion. That would make Katrina much less costly than the previous hurricanes.

Scenes of Katrina's impact were everywhere Friday--work crews sawing trees crippled by the wind; a 727 cargo plane pushed along a runway fence; sailboats resting askew on a sandy shore. However, there didn't appear to be as much widespread structural damage to homes as the other storms caused.

The dead were four people killed by falling trees, one man killed when his car struck a fallen tree, and two people who tried to ride out the storm in their boats.

Strassman reports that 5 people are lucky to be alive. Tina and Edward Larson and their three children were lost at sea since yesterday after they took their 24-foot boat to sea from the Florida Keys – right into Katrina. But Friday, the Coast Guard hoisted them to safety, Strassman reports.

The military planned to move aircraft and personnel out of some Florida bases Saturday to avoid the storm, and Bush said 1,000 National Guard troops that had been activated in South Florida may be deactivated or moved to a new target area.

Katrina's first swipe across Florida flooded about 50 homes in Homestead and damaged 40 mobile homes in Broward County.

Katrina is the 11th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. That's seven more than typically has formed by now in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane center said. The season ends Nov. 30.