Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Wilma came ashore in southwestern Florida near Cape Romano, and is crossing the peninsula with sustained winds of 120 mph, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

About 150,000 people fled inland ahead of the storm, which two days ago brought torrential rains in a stop-start movement over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Wilma was 10 miles north of Everglades City at 7 a.m. and heading northeast at 23 mph, the center said on it Web site.

Naples, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Cape Romano, was at risk from the worst effects of Wilma as the wall of the 50-mile eye began to cross the city, hurricane center meteorologist Eric Blake said in a telephone interview.

``The eye wall is where you're going to get the strongest winds,'' another center meteorologist, Michelle Mainelli, said earlier today in a telephone interview. ``We're urging everybody to remain indoors: Do not go out.''

The hurricane's relatively fast forward speed will lessen the impact of rainfall and flooding, though a storm surge as high as 18 feet (6 meters) is expected in some areas, and the winds are likely to be ``destructive,'' Mainelli said.

The hurricane was a ``strong'' Category 3 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale at landfall, with winds of 125 mph, the center said earlier.

Crude oil slid, trading below $60 a barrel in New York for a third day, as Wilma missed rigs and refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil for December delivery fell as much as $1.07, or 1.8 percent, to $59.56 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Warnings

Hurricane-force winds of at least 74 mph extended 90 miles from Wilma's center and tropical-storm-force winds, a minimum of 39 mph, extended 230 miles, the center said. Wilma may take as long as eight hours to cross the Florida peninsula, said Jennifer Pralgo, a meteorologist at the center. Weakening was forecast as the storm passed over land.

A hurricane warning was in effect for most of the Florida peninsula, including the Keys. The warning extended southward from Longboat Key on the state's western coast and southward from Titusville on the eastern coast. Warnings were also in place for western Cuba and the northwestern Bahamas.

The International Committee of the Red Cross was operating 77 shelters in Florida as of 8 p.m. local time yesterday and had 60 on standby, spokeswoman Laura Howe said in a telephone interview from Birmingham, Alabama. About 15,000 evacuees were in the shelters, she said.

About 8 to 10 percent of evacuees usually go to shelters, Howe said. On that basis, she estimated as many as 150,000 people may have evacuated in southern Florida.

`Best Prepared'

``I've been here for 22 years, and this is the best prepared this area has ever been,'' Naples Police Chief Steve Moore said. ``People are leaving who would have never left before.''

Collier County, where Naples is located, had a mandatory evacuation for coastal areas. The county has a population of about 297,000, according to 2004 U.S. Census figures.

About 2,400 National Guard members were mobilized and an additional 3,000 are on call, Florida Governor Jeb Bush said yesterday in a televised conference. The state opened 23 shelters and emergency search-and-rescue crews were on standby, he said.

New York, Georgia, Mississippi and Texas contributed some of the 24 Blackhawk and 10 Chinook helicopters that are ready for emergency service, Bush said.

Key West International Airport, Marco Island Airport, Florida Keys Marathon Airport and the Key West Naval Air Facility were closed, Michael C. McCarron, a spokesman for the San Francisco International Airport, said in an e-mailed statement.

Power Cuts

Florida Power and Light Co. estimates service for as many as 2 million customers may be affected, the utility said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.

The University of Miami, the largest private employer in Miami-Dade County, said yesterday it shut operations through today. The institution, with 10,000 full- and part-time faculty and employees, has about 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

Port Tampa was closed and Port Everglades and Port Canaveral were scheduled to close yesterday.

Wilma battered the Mexican state of Quintana Roo for about 48 hours. The hurricane tore down electricity lines, toppled telecommunications towers, damaged roads and ripped roofs off houses and hotels in the resorts of Cancun, Playa del Carmen and the island of Cozumel, said Juan Granados, an official with the state's civil protection agency, in a phone interview yesterday.

``The weather has cleared and now the clean-up work has begun in the areas,'' Granados said. Quintana Roo Governor Felix Gonzalez Canto said yesterday three people died in the province because of Wilma, according to a statement on the province's Web site. Agence France-Presse reported eight deaths in Mexico.

Army, Navy

The Mexican army and navy are providing food and water to about 35,000 tourists and 70,000 residents who took refuge in government shelters to ride out the storm, Granados said.

Six hundred state and federal police were sent to the cities to restore order and about 150 people have been arrested for looting, he said.

In Cuba, almost 700,000 people were evacuated from areas at risk as the storm passed to the islands west and then north, according to the Web site of the official Cuban News Agency. Wilma caused storm-surge flooding and heavy rains in the Caribbean nation, and sparked a ``rare'' tornado on the Isle of Youth, the agency reported.

Tropical Depression

About 230 miles north of Great Inagua Island in the Bahamas, Tropical Depression Alpha had winds of 35 mph at 5 a.m. Miami time, an increase from 21 mph late yesterday, according to the hurricane center. Alpha was moving north at about 23 mph, and was expected to be absorbed by Wilma when the hurricane crosses into the Atlantic, the center said.

Alpha was named when it attained tropical-storm strength two days ago, becoming the 22nd named storm of the June 1 to Nov. 30 Atlantic hurricane season and breaking a record set in 1933. Wilma is the 12th hurricane of the season, equaling a record from 1969.

Wilma was the last of the hurricane names on this year's list, prompting forecasters to use the Greek alphabet in naming Alpha.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 24, 2005 07:18 EDT