(CNN) -- Powerful Tropical Cyclone Daman closed in on Fiji on Friday, threatening the Pacific island chain with home-destroying winds and dangerous floods.

"It's most likely going to be one of the severest cyclones to hit the country in recent times," Fiji Disaster Management Office director Joeli Rokovabe told The Associated Press. Tourist resorts -- Fiji's top industry -- are also threatened, he added.

The population of the nation's 332 islands is about 900,000, according to the CIA World Factbook, and many residents rely on fishing and farming to survive.

A Category 4 storm, Daman has triggered a hurricane warning for some of Fiji's larger islands, including Cikobia and northeastern Vanua Levu. Daman's eye is expected to brush Vanua Levu, which is Fiji's second largest island, said meteorologist Alipate Waqaicelua.

Vanua Levu residents and those on the Lau and Lomaiviti island groups have been warned to move from coa...

TAMPA - Florida wraps up a second straight year without a hurricane Friday amid signs that people have forgotten the pummeling the state took in the two previous years.

Sales of portable generators, tied closely to hurricane preparation, are off by half, says manufacturer Briggs & Stratton Corp., and there are questions about the continued worth of the state's little-used sales-tax holiday on storm-related purchases.

Unless something highly unexpected forms, the current June through November season will be the second in a row when Florida wasn't even threatened by a serious storm.

This year the state was hit by a single, weak tropical storm, Barry, which did more good than harm: The rainfall ended fears of a major wildfire season.

State meteorologist Ben Nelson called June's Barry, with its widespread rain and minimal winds, one of the most beneficial tropical storms to hit the state.

That leads many to predict complacenc...

MIAMI, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Karen gained strength on Wednesday and could soon become a hurricane in the open Atlantic while a new tropical storm was expected to form in the Gulf of Mexico, U.S forecasters said.

Karen, the 11th named Atlantic storm of the year, was located around 1,225 miles (1,970 km) east of the Windward Islands by 11 a.m. (1500 GMT) and had top sustained winds of 70 miles per hour (110 km per hour), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The storm could become a hurricane later on Wednesday with winds in excess of 74 mph (119 kph), the hurricane center said, but its most likely track would take it well north of the Caribbean islands and out over open ocean, potentially toward Bermuda.

A developing tropical system in the Gulf of Mexico, however, was expected to strike land within three days although computer models indicated that important U.S. and Mexican oil installations in the region were not at risk.

The ...