Tampa Bay Fl

The Georgetown apartment complex was one of this city's most coveted properties back in 2005. Now Greg Chelius and Alex Size were touring it as if examining an exotic ruin. They walked past the unmanned guardhouse and its broken windows. Size snapped photos with a digital camera. Chelius lifted the green fabric on a fence tacked with No Trespassing signs. Building after building loomed in the near distance, all of them quiet and vacant.

With a powerful hurricane whirling toward Florida's densely populated middle Gulf Coast on Thursday, authorities ordered the largest evacuation ever in the Tampa Bay area, telling hundreds of thousands of people to seek higher ground before Hurricane Charley storms ashore sometime today. The hurricane swept over Cuba late Thursday with high winds, a strong storm surge and heavy rain. As in Florida, many areas on the island were evacuated.

Al Gore ended his presidential race in this gleaming Gulf Coast city, sipping strong Cuban coffee with running mate Joe Lieberman. President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry have made repeated campaign stops here, observing the axiom: As go Tampa Bay voters, so goes Florida. A recent study showed that only three cities nationwide had been more barraged with presidential TV ads than Tampa. Despite the attention, the region's voters are still very much divided over who they want for president.