Hurricane Dennis thundered toward the U.S. Gulf Coast on Sunday with ferocious winds and waves that threatened potentially massive destruction in an area still bearing the scars of the last storm season. After killing 32 people in Cuba and Haiti in the Caribbean, Dennis roared northward in the Gulf of Mexico with 140 mph (226 kph) winds capable of shredding roofs, and a 10- to 15-foot (3 metre to 4.6 metre) storm surge that could swamp towns, Reuters reported. By 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), Dennis' winds had weakened by 5 mph (8 kph) from earlier in the morning as the sprawling storm swept over slightly cooler waters in the northern Gulf. But it remained a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale -- stronger than Hurricane Ivan was when it came ashore last September and killed 25 people, caused $14 billion in damages and destroyed or damaged 13 oil drilling platforms in the Gulf. "We still think it'll make landfall at Category 4 or borderline Category 3 and 4," Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, told CNN. --More 2333 Local Time 2033 GMT
