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Last Updated: Oct 24th, 2006 - 17:24:11 |
KEY WEST, Fla. - Rain from Tropical Storm Ernesto swept across parts of the vulnerable Florida Keys on Tuesday morning as residents hurried to fill gas tanks, gather emergency supplies and board up windows before the main body of the storm strikes.
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| Vehicles drive by as storm clouds move through the area Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006 in Key West, Fla. Rain began falling Tuesday morning as residents hurried to make last-minute preparations for Tropical Storm Ernesto, expected to strengthen before striking the vulnerable Florida Keys and populous South Florida. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee) |
The storm has a chance of regaining hurricane strength before it makes landfall as early as Tuesday night, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said.
On the anniversary of Katrina's devastation of New Orleans, and with memories still fresh of the seven hurricanes that have hit Florida since 2004, state officials urged residents not to wait for Ernesto to strengthen again.
Tourists were ordered out of the Keys. Mainland Broward and Miami-Dade counties urged residents of mobile homes and homes still damaged from previous storms, including roofs protected only by tarpaulins, to evacuate early Tuesday.
"If your home currently has a blue tarp, it is not safe," Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez said.
Ernesto had sustained wind of 45 mph shortly before noon, with higher gusts, and the hurricane center said it was likely to grow more powerful as it crossed the warm Florida Straits between Cuba and the peninsula.
Forecasters put the chance of tropical storm-force wind of at least 39 mph hitting Florida at about 70 percent. The number was only 5 percent for hurricane-force sustained wind of at least 74 mph, but forecasters warned Floridians to pay attention even if it doesn't become a hurricane.
"A strong tropical storm is certainly capable of producing wind gusts to hurricane force and those winds can cause power lines to go down" and can cause roof damage, senior hurricane specialist Richard Knabb said.
Tropical storm warnings were extended Tuesday along the East Coast from the Florida Keys to Altamaha Sound, Ga., about halfway up the Georgia coast, and a tropical storm watch was extended along Florida's Gulf Coast north to Tarpon Springs, just north of Clearwater. All of Florida's southern half was under a tropical storm watch or warning.
Line formed across southern Florida at gas stations and groceries and home-supply stores as soon as they opened as people grabbed emergency supplies.
At a Miami pharmacy, 71-year-old Migdalia Antigua was the first person in line early Tuesday, buying cholesterol medication and other supplies for her family.
"All of the responsibility falls on me because I'm the one in the household with my legs under me," Antigua said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it had 120 truckloads of water and meals stationed in Florida.
NASA started moving space shuttle Atlantis off the launch pad and back into its giant shelter at Cape Canaveral because of the storm. Cruise ship companies diverted several liners.
At 11 a.m. EDT, Ernesto was centered over warm open water in the Florida Straits, about 170 miles southeast of Key West and 180 miles south-southeast of Miami, the hurricane center said. It was moving west-northwest at about 13 mph and could dump 5 to 15 inches of rain.
Northward up the Atlantic Seaboard, South Carolina was activating nearly 250 National Guard members to be ready if Ernesto reaches that state later in the week, Gov. Mark Sanford said Tuesday. North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley urged residents to make preparations.
After crossing Florida and hitting open water again, Ernesto was expected to make landfall along the South Carolina coast Thursday afternoon as a tropical storm, the National Weather Service said Tuesday morning. "There's more uncertainty surrounding this storm than with some of the storms last year," said Jonathan Lamb at the weather service in Charleston, S.C.
Key West streets were relatively quiet early Tuesday. Some hotels had plywood up over windows, but many homes were unprotected.
Shelters opened around the area but initially were crowded. Midmorning, 27 people with special health needs, some on gurneys, were in a shelter at Florida International University near Miami.
Over the weekend, Ernesto, the fifth named storm of the hurricane season, became the first hurricane of the Atlantic season and lashed the Dominican Republic and Haiti, killing one woman on a Haitian island. There were no immediate reports of damage or injury Monday in Cuba.
In an unusual recognition of the quiet cooperation that has long existed between American and Cuban meteorologists, an advisory from the hurricane center expressed "special thanks to the government of Cuba" for permitting reconnaissance aircraft to fly "right up to their coastline to gather this critical weather data."
The Bahamas on Monday ordered boats in southern islands to stay in port. The island chain had a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch in effect for western islands close to Florida's coast.
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On the Net:
National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
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Associated Press writers Howard Campbell in Kingston, Jamaica; Anita Snow and Vanessa Arrington in Havana; and Matt Sedensky in Florida City, Fla., contributed to this report.
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