MIAMI, July 9: Over half a million residents of the eastern US Gulf Coast were told to evacuate their homes on Saturday, but Florida’s Key West heaved a sigh of relief at being spared the worst of deadly Hurricane Dennis.

After pounding Cuba, where it killed at least 10 people, the storm moved into the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, with its centre staying well off Key West, a city at the southern tip of a chain of islands linked to mainland Florida by a series of bridges.

But heavy rains and fierce winds on the edge of the hurricane battered the popular tourist destination as well as other parts of southern Florida.

Concern, however, focused on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and particularly Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle, where the hurricane was expected to make landfall on Sunday.

Both states were still recovering from last year’s hurricane damage, particularly Florida, which was hit by four such storms in quick succession slast year.

“This is serious. This is a very dangerous storm,” said Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a brother of the US president.

“If you are in a mandatory evacuation area, please do so,” the governor said at a news conference on Saturday.

Over half a million people in the Florida Panhandle and in neighbouring Alabama were affected by the evacuation orders.

Oil rigs and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico had already been evacuated in anticipation of the hurricane, which regained strength after weakening as it crossed central Cuba.

Residents of Key West and the rest of the Florida Keys who did not evacuate before the storm were told to remain indoors, as dangerous weather conditions were expected to continue throughout the day.

Severe storms lashed an area of south Florida reaching from Key West to north of Miami, uprooting trees, downing power lines and leaving about 200,000 people without power.—AFP