Students in South brave Hurricane Dennis

Hurricane season begins June 1, and the deadliest hurricanes don't normally hit until the fall. But hurricane activity came early for those along the Gulf Coast, including many IU students who have gone south for the summer months. \nHurricane Dennis hit the Florida panhandle, Alabama, Mississippi and southern Georgia yesterday. Dennis, at one time a Category 4 hurricane, was expected to produce winds up to 115 to 120 mph, according to www.weather.com. The Web site also predicted extensive damage in the region where Dennis hit. \nFor most who live along the coast line, unpredictable weather is a part of the season.\n"We've been through it a lot, so it's not a really big deal," said junior Shane Kupperman, who is originally from New Orleans, La. \nKupperman is living in Washington, D.C., for the summer, but his family lives in New Orleans, which was issued a tropical storm warning Sunday afternoon.\n"Basically, there is always a big scare about the hurricane but it doesn't usually hit New Orleans," Kupperman said. "There's not a lot of damage -- just a lot of winds and rain. My family never really evacuates. We just close our shutters and buy some food and water."\nAccording to some reports, more than 400,000 people might be without electricity for three weeks.\nHurricane Jeanne and Hurricane Ivan swept through the Gulf Coast last September. Both caused massive destruction and after Ivan hit, 1.5 million homes and businesses were left without power. Dennis is traveling the same state lines that Ivan did just 10 months ago. \nDennis, which is already responsible for at least 20 deaths in the Caribbean, grew quickly in the open Gulf of Mexico. It became a 145-mph Category 4 storm, which would have made it the most powerful storm on record in the panhandle and Alabama. But as it approached shore, it weakened to a 120-mph Category 3, identical to Ivan, which killed 29 people in the panhandle alone and caused billions of dollars of damage.\nIU senior Rachel Lowe, who is from Hollywood, Fla., and is home for the summer, dealt with some of the effects of Hurricane Dennis Friday.\n"The hurricane didn't actually hit us -- it was just the outer bands of it," Lowe said. "We didn't get the worst part of it. I went through Hurricane Andrew, and that was a lot worse than this one."\nHurricane Andrew was the most expensive hurricane ever, causing $26.5 billion in damage in 1992.\nHollywood was hit with 40-mph winds around 4:30 a.m. Friday, which Lowe said didn't do a lot of damage, but brought down some trees and left some residents without power.\nEven students who have stayed in Bloomington for the summer will be affected by Dennis. Rain is forecasted for the Bloomington Area beginning Tuesday through Saturday. \n-- The Associated Press contributed to this story.