The horrific storm, which has killed around 11,000 people in Central America, is now breaking up over the sea north east of the Bahamas.

Rain and high surf causes more floods

The US Hurricane Centre said Mitch was no longer a tropical storm.

But Mitch, one of the most intense Atlantic storms ever recorded and possibly the deadliest in more than two centuries, did not go quietly.

One man drowned after his fishing boat, named Carefree, capsized in the Gulf of Mexico and another died when he skidded off a storm-lashed road in Florida.

Florida Keys: Mitch follows Georges

Mitch weakened to a tropical depression after battering Central America last week at hurricane strength.

But it picked up steam over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico as it headed toward Florida where it struck on Wednesday.

Hardest hit were the Keys, where tornadoes flipped mobile homes, felled trees and snapped power lines.

The onslaught came six weeks after Hurricane Georges destroyed or damaged 4,000 homes on the scenic 120-mile (192-kilometer) island chain.

The storm also hit much of south and central Florida. Up to 7.5 inches (19 cm) of rain flooded streets in Miami and tornadoes damaged houses.

From there Mitch blew across the Florida peninsula and through the northern Bahamas, where islands were lashed with high winds and rains.

But by Thursday afternoon local time all tropical storm warnings had been lifted.

With winds near 60 mph (96 kmph), Mitch is now breaking up over the Atlantic about 100 miles (160 km) northeast of the Bahamas.

But as the death toll from the storms approaches 11,000, with another 13,000 missing and feared dead, Mitch looks set to become the deadliest Atlantic hurricane in more than two centuries.

According to the National Hurricane Centre the deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record is The Great Hurricane of 1780, a vicious storm blamed for 22,000 deaths in the eastern Caribbean.