Storm strikes Brazil with deadly force

By The Associated Press

	PAULO FRANKEN / AP A man picks up chairs yesterday inside what used to be a snack bar in Torres, on the coast of Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil.
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American and Brazilian scientists had been arguing for days over the storm, dubbed Catarina.

Brazilian meteorologists had predicted it carried winds just above 50 mph, saying "winds and rains will not be significant, so we don't need to alarm the population."

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Florida had predicted winds well above the hurricane threshold of 74 mph.

"We think the Brazilians are, quite frankly, out to lunch on this one," Michael Sager, a meteorologist for private forecaster AccuWeather, said Saturday. "I think they're trying to play it down and not cause a panic. I don't know what they're doing, but they're obviously wrong."

Yesterday, the Brazilians acknowledged the winds could have been as high as 94 mph, which would make it the first hurricane ever recorded in the South Atlantic.

Brazil has no wind-measuring devices in the affected areas, and both sides said they were basing their estimates on satellite data.

Authorities were searching for 11 fishermen missing off the coast of Santa Catarina state after two boats sank nine miles offshore in 13-foot waves early yesterday, Navy Commander Paolo Baltore said.

The storm roared ashore early yesterday about 520 miles southwest of Rio de Janeiro. The number of injuries from the storm could rise, since it had cut communication with several towns, Santa Catarina state Civil Defense official Marcio Luiz Alves said.

The storm damaged an estimated 20,000 homes in Santa Catarina, destroying 500 of them. That left about 1,500 people homeless.

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