ATLANTA — Now a sopping, sprawling tropical depression, the remnants of Hurricane Ivan battered the eastern United States from Georgia to Pennsylvania on Friday with winds and drenching rain, killing at least 11 people.
The storm spawned multiple tornadoes Friday evening that spun across northern Virginia and grounded planes at Dulles International Airport outside Washington.
In Florida's Panhandle, rescuers clawed through the wreckage of the third hurricane to strike the state in little more than a month.
"We expect Ivan to be a catastrophic event, [and] we have search and rescue on the ground" in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, said Cragin Mosteller, a spokeswoman for the state's emergency operations office. As many as 14 people in Florida were reported killed when Ivan stormed ashore from the Gulf of Mexico early Thursday near the Alabama-Florida line.
Moving northeast at about 18 mph Friday, the soggy remnants of the Category 3 hurricane caused major flooding in Asheville, N.C., swept away homes, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people and sparked flood warnings along the Appalachian mountain chain from northern Alabama to southern New York.
Georgia authorities reported four Ivan-related deaths, including those of a 6-year-old girl in White County who was swept away by storm water in a culvert and an 86-year-old woman who burned down her house after she lit a candle when her electricity went out. Many roads, especially in Georgia's northeast, were washed out.
By 8 a.m. EDT Friday, the storm had soaked Atlanta with more than 5 inches of rain, and the Georgia capital and its environs suffered serious flooding, wind damage and downed trees, some of which took power lines with them.
The Chattahoochee River and Peachtree Creek broke their banks, causing frightened residents in the upscale Atlanta suburb of Vinings to call the Fire Department for rescue by boat. Peachtree Creek crested at 22 feet, more than 5 feet above normal.
"The flood damage was extensive," said Bernard Hicks, operations officer for the Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency. Hicks said he had recorded more than 40 pages of reports of downed trees alone.
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue wrote President Bush requesting expedited federal disaster assistance.
