From JULIE VORMAN

Miami, Sunday

UP TO a million south Florida coastal residents began evacuating today

as a potentially deadly hurricane bore down on the Bahamas on a route

expected to take it to Miami within 24 hours.

Packing winds of 150mph, Hurricane Andrew was about 300 miles east of

Miami at 1500 GMT today, travelling at 16mph. It was expected to touch

down in the Bahamas this afternoon and reach Miami around dawn.

The storm was rated as a Force IV hurricane, as powerful as the lethal

Hurricane Hugo that devastated the Caribbean and the south-east United

States in 1989, and potentially the most powerful hurricane to reach

Florida since 1935.

''This is a killer storm. You need to leave now,'' said Fred Taylor,

an emergency worker in Florida's Dade County.

Officials said the massive evacuation along Florida's southern coast,

among the largest-ever US evacuation efforts, would take a full day.

It is a logistical nightmare, moving hundreds of thousands of people

across causeways and bridges amid clogged traffic.

Low-lying hospitals shuttled patients to higher ground. Hardware

stores and supermarkets were packed with people stocking up on lanterns,

batteries, bottled water, and canned food.

Forecasters said Andrew's storm surge could reach 14ft. The National

Hurricane Centre warned the public to rush all preparations.

''This is fairly close to a worst-case scenario,'' said Dade County

manager Joaquin Avino.

By midday, evacuation orders existed for half a million people in

Miami and Dade counties, 430,000 in Fort Lauderdale and Broward County,

and more than 100,000 in the Florida Keys and barrier islands around

Palm Beach.

The Bahamas is the first populated area in the hurricane's path. There

were unconfirmed reports tonight of four deaths as it hit the isolated

Out Islands.

The entire south-east coast of Florida was placed on a hurricane watch

yesterday and extended northward today.

In London, the Foreign Office warned Britons to avoid southern Florida

and the Bahamas for the next 48 hours.

Britain is also sending a frigate and a supply ship to the Bahamas

''to assist with any problems''.--Reuter/AP.