Meteorologists have warned the killer storm is the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. It adopted a curving path likely to carry it up to South Florida this weekend.

Incredibly, the storm grew from a Category 2 hurricane at 11 p.m. Tuesday into a top-scale Category 5 by 5 a.m.

A hurricane hunter plane measured its barometric pressure at 884 millibars, considered the lowest minimum pressure ever recorded in the Atlantic basin, which includes the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.

The five-day cone of danger covered the entire Florida peninsula, the Keys and much of Cuba, where the storm s outlying rain produced landslides, floods, mass evacuations and a hurricane watch.

Cayman Islands, Mexico and Honduras also posted watches and warnings.

According to reports, Wilma was moving toward the west-northwest, near 8 mph. It is expected to head toward the northwest during the next 24 hours.

By: Cubasí