Tropical Storm Fay Moves in on Florida Keys
By on
August 18th, 2008
Some Key West stores were shuttered, while others stubbornly remained open, and crews cleared sidewalks of newspaper boxes that could become airborne in high winds as Tropical Storm Fay headed for Florida after claiming as many as 35 lives in the Caribbean.
Tourists were urged to evacuate but many bars and restaurants were doing business, even if crowds were considerably thinner than typical for this time of year. At the Stuffed Pig restaurant in Marathon, about a dozen locals had breakfast Monday morning, not worried but prepared for the storm.
“We always prepare, we don’t take it lightly,” owner Michael Cinque said. “We might roll down the shutters. We got built-in generators.”
Willie Dykes, 58, and friend Essy Pastrana, 48, live on a sailboat in Key West, and said they weren’t going anywhere. The pair was filling up gas cans Monday morning and buying supplies like food, water and whiskey.
“We’re gonna ride it out,” Dykes said, his fluffy white beard blowing sideways in the wind. “We’re not worried about it. We’ve seen this movie before.”
Further north in the Keys town of Marathon, Home Depot assistant manager Denis Lee said it seemed like a normal Monday despite the approaching storm.
“Everybody seems to be acting like this is a non-event,” Lee said.
Fay, the sixth named storm of the 2008 Atlantic season, left at least five people dead in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. A Haitian lawmaker said another 30 people may have died in a bus crash blamed on the storm.
Forecasters said Fay is expected to near hurricane strength, which starts at windspeeds of 74 mph, when it reaches the Keys later Monday. Aside from wind damage, most of the islands sit at sea level and could face some limited flooding from Fay’s storm surge.
The exact track is not clear but the storm is expected to hit the Keys and then the western coast of Florida, forecasters said.
Anywhere from 4 to 10 inches of rain are possible, so flooding is a threat even far from where the center comes ashore, said Stacy Stewart, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center.
“We don’t want people to focus on the exact track. This is a broad, really diffuse storm. All the Florida Keys and all the Florida peninsula are going to feel the effects of this storm, no matter where the center makes landfall,” he said. “We don’t want people to downplay this.”
Traffic leaving Key West and the Lower Keys Sunday night and Monday morning remained light but steady.
Authorities said traffic was heavier in the Upper Keys, where the 110-mile, mostly two-lane highway that runs through the island chain meets the mainland. The Florida Highway Patrol sent in extra troopers to help and tolls were suspended on parts of the northbound turnpike.
The last plane left Key West International Airport at about 9:30 a.m. with 19 people aboard, headed to Fort Lauderdale. The airport shut down at half hour later. The last Greyhound bus also left Key West Monday morning nearly empty with just 15 people aboard.
A hurricane watch was in effect for most of the Keys and along Florida’s west coast.
Early Monday, a tropical storm warning was issued for Florida’s east coast from Sebastian Inlet southward and along Florida’s west coast from Bonita Beach southward, including Lake Okeechobee.
A tropical storm warning also remained in effect for the entire Florida Keys. A watch means those conditions might occur within 36 hours. A warning means those conditions are expected within 24 hours.
Officials in the Keys and elsewhere opened shelters and encouraged or ordered people living in low-lying areas and on boats to evacuate. Schools in the Keys were to be closed Monday and Tuesday.
Just before 11 a.m. EDT Monday, the storm’s center was located over the Florida Straits between Cuba and the Keys, about 70 miles south-southeast of Key West and was moving toward the north-northwest near 13 mph.
Maximum sustained wind speeds were near 60 mph with higher gusts, and the storm was expected to strengthen over the next 24 hours.
Residents on Florida’s Gulf coast were told to make preparations as forecasters said Fay could approach that area Tuesday as a Category 1 storm, with winds from 74 to 95 mph.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain canceled a Monday fundraiser in Miami as a precaution, but he was still expected to speak at the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Orlando.
His presumptive Democratic opponent Barack Obama canceled events Sunday in Fort Myers, Clearwater and Tampa. He is scheduled to speak at the VFW on Tuesday.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency Saturday as an emergency operations center opened in Tallahassee. He said 9,000 Florida National Guard troops were available, but only 500 were on active duty Sunday.
Key West was last seriously affected by a hurricane in 2005, when Category 3 Wilma sped past. The town escaped widespread wind damage, but a storm surge flooded hundreds of homes and some businesses. The deadliest storm to hit the island was a Category 4 hurricane in 1919 that killed up to 900 people, many of them offshore on ships that sank.
Popularity: 1% [?]
