We all want it to miss us," he said.As Floyd's outer storm bands began to touch the coast, Florida was split as always between the frightened - including foreign tourists - and those who have seen hurricanes come and go. As Governor Bush pointed out with neat political correctness, Florida is "blessed with a large elderly population", most of whom were bused to inland shelters.Many complained they were not allowed to take their pets to the shelters. I've lived here all my life," was the response from Danny Vaisman, a 48-year-old insurance broker from low-lying Palm Island next to Miami's cruise port. "If TV didn't hype it, we all wouldn't have to go crazy."Mr Vaisman wore a T-shirt bearing the slogan "We be jammin' The Bahamas" he'd bought on an earlier holiday to the islands. At that moment, the Bahamas were taking the first hits from Floyd.Bahamas residents called Miami television stations saying they were sheltering in buildings such as banks. "THIS IS a monster storm It is large It is ferocious.

And it is scary." Live on local television stations, an anxious-faced Florida governor Jeb Bush, son of the former president and brother of the Republican presidential candidate, set the fearful tone as Hurricane Floyd bore down yesterday. Floyd, we were told, was "enormously dangerous, three times as powerful as Andrew," the devastating hurricane that flattened areas of South Florida in 1992, killing 26 and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless."It's all bullshit. "He was intending to complete one more term in office, then buy a house in Donegal and retire," said Ms Pye who has always retained her maiden name. "After losing his job, his plans were shattered It wrecked him Our view of Tony Blair was coloured by that decision. "No decision has yet been made about these flights," said a spokeswoman for Thomson.She added: "Our holidaymakers in the Orlando area have all been given letters advising them of the hurricane threat and giving them contact numbers of all our people out there. Hopefully it won't come to that."British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Airtours were among those who cancelled flights to Florida yesterday. Travellers who had not received earlier warnings were said to have behaved with "good grace" when they were turned away from airports having been offered refunds.Thomson Holidays and First Choice, which both have flights due later this week, were monitoring the situation. If it did we would evacuate on planes, if there were any flights on other carriers, or bus them out.

Virgin Holidays, the largest British operator in the area, had already flown some customers home yesterday along with evacuations from the Bahamas."All our customers from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Vero, Daytona and Cocoa beaches have been evacuated to Orlando," Naomi Lewis, of Virgin Holidays, said "It is quite unlikely that it will affect Orlando. No one will be abandoned."Most British operators were evacuating their coastal customers 60 miles inland to Orlando, where many of the 25,000 to 30,000 Britons were already on holiday.Airlines cancelled flights in and out of the state yesterday. A spokeswoman for Florida's tourist office said: "The coast is bound to get very high winds and UK tourists in the Orlando area inland are being kept informed. "This is a bad hurricane, but Florida has great experience of handling these kind of emergencies Everyone will be looked after. Hurricane Floyd was expected to hit Florida early today, having already caused devastation in the Bahamas. THOUSANDS OF British tourists were among the estimated one million people evacuated inland yesterday as one of the worst hurricanes this century bore down on America's eastern seaboard.

"But the trouble is, will there be a port to return to? It might get wiped out," said Captain Chris Knapp, of the Gold Rover.. "We are hoping for the best,"said a NASA spokesman, George Diller, before fleeing the site.At the neighbouring Cape Canaveral Air Station, four unmanned rockets worth $628m were left standing on launch pads with no time to remove them before ground crews were also ordered to evacuate. If the eye of the storm stays about 25 miles off Cape Canaveral, as many meteorologists predict, that would spare Florida the worst of the winds. But residents of the oceanside city of Cocoa Beach on Cape Canaveral were taking no chances yesterday, with most of the housing areas deserted and many of the store windows boarded up.Among the ships evacuated from Mayport naval base, north of Jacksonville, Florida, was the Royal Fleet Auxilliary Gold Rover, a British refuelling tanker, whose role is to support the Royal Navy's West Indies guard vessel, currently the frigate HMS Northumberland The plan is to return to Mayport by the weekend. Several scenarios for the course of the storm have it making a direct hit on Cape Canaveral or coming "so close to the coast it would count as landfall," said Max Mayfield, deputy director of the National Hurricane Centre. But the approaching hurricane is expected to bring winds of 155 mph, placing the space craft and associated facilities at serious risk. All staff, except for a skeleton crew of 125, were evacuated from the Kennedy Space Centre yesterday, effectively leaving the programme to the mercy of the hurricane. The four shuttles, each valued at $2bn, are housed in hangers designed to withstand winds of 125 mph.

Officials feared that the most potent symbol of man's technological might could yet be flattened by encroaching forces of nature. THE PRIDE of the US space programme was all but abandoned last night after a shift northwards by Hurricane Floyd put Cape Canaveral and the $8bn fleet of space shuttles in its expected path. She added: "I understand how difficult it is for many people, but this is part of the on-going process."t The Government has started redundancy negotiations with RUC officers. Senior civil servants met rank and file representatives to discuss lay- off terms after former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten proposed halving the force from 13,000 to 7,500.. He too is believed to have been killed by a relative of a man he killed many years earlier.Billy "King Rat" Wright, another leading loyalist with whom Adair was friendly, was shot dead by republicans inside the Maze last year.Northern Ireland Secretary Dr Mo Mowlam admitted yesterday that she had reservation's about Adair's release, but said he was subject to the conditions of the early release legislation. Two well-known loyalist figures, Robert "Basher" Bates and Frankie Curry, were killed by gunmen believed to be related to their own past victims.The same fate befell republican icon Dominic McGlinchey, once of the most-feared republican gunmen.