PENSACOLA (USA), July 11: Relief crews fanned out over northwest Florida on Monday to gauge the misery and debris strewn anew by Hurricane Dennis on a region still recovering from a devastating hurricane last year. Dennis hurtled ashore with 120-mph winds on Sunday, swamping homes, ripping off roofs, felling power lines and contributing to at least three deaths. It caused $1 billion to $2.5 billion of damage to insured property, according to initial estimates from risk assessment company AIR Worldwide Corp.

But despite fears among coastal residents of a repeat of the widespread damage from September’s Hurricane Ivan, the hurricane delivered a less-punishing blow and weakened rapidly as it sped inland.

“We dodged the bullet on the most part although our beach has suffered badly again,” said Sara Comander, a spokeswoman for Walton County east of Pensacola.

Dennis was downgraded to a tropical depression, a gusty mass of thunderstorms, as it moved over Alabama on Monday, the US National Hurricane Center said. The storm could still cause heavy rain as it moved into Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana, the centre warned.

Farmers in drought-stricken Illinois and other parts of the eastern US Midwest were hoping the storm’s remnants would bring much-needed moisture to parched corn and soybean fields.

US oil and gas producers began sending crews back into the Gulf of Mexico to restart platforms shut down by the storm.—Reuters