What storm? Keys take Tropical Storm Fay in stride (AP)
While tourists caught the utmost flight out of town and headed out of the storm’s path, residents in the carefree Florida Keys were putting up hurricane shutters and checking their generators, but not doing much more.
“We’re not worried about it. We’ve seen this movie before,” said 58-year-old Willie Dykes, who lives on a sailboat in Key West and was buying food, water and whiskey.
By midafternoon, heavy rains moving in our teeth of Fay’s inmost part were pelting the low-lying Keys island chain. Sustained winds of about 33 mph bent palm trees, and some gusts strike against 51 mph.
The sixth named gale in the Atlantic hurricane period was expected to become a hurricane before curling up the state’s west. occidental coast and hitting Florida’s mainland sometime Tuesday.
“There are bad storms and there are nice ones, and this is a fastidious united,” said Becky Weldon, a 43-year-old guest kindred manager in Key West. “It cleans out totally the trees, it gives people a little work to do and it gets the tourists out of here for a few days.”
Officials were worried that complacency could cost lives, repeatedly urging nation across the state to take Fay seriously. The message got through to tourists — Monroe County Mayor Mario Di Gennaro estimated 25,000 fled the Keys. Some residents have taken steps since the busy 2004-05 storm years, when eight hurricanes hammered Florida, of the like kind as buying generators and strengthening homes, but not everyone is as prepared.
“This is not the type of storm that’s going to rip off a lot of roofs or cause the type of damage we normally see in a large hurricane,” said Craig Fugate, the national’s emergency management chief.
However, Fugate said: “I’ve seen since many people die when I have a blob-shaped asymmetrical storm that they give leave to go to the degree that not being very dangerous.”
The state took every step to be active sure it was ready. National Guard troops were at the ready and more were waiting in reserve, and 20 truckloads of tarps, 200 truckloads of water and 52 truckloads of food had arrived.
One who did heed the invoke to prepare was Chris Fleeman, a 35-year-old mechanic on Big Pine Key who was stirring helping friends and family members confirmation up their homes.
“I’ve got a generator and I’ve got a concrete close that I built myself, so I know it can withstand this,” Fleeman said.
Since 2006, Florida has taken several steps to make sure its residents are prepared. More than 400,000 houses were inspected under a program that provides grants to people to strengthen their houses.
Florida law also things being so requires some 970 elastic fluid stations along hurricane evacuation routes statewide to have backup generators so they can keep pumping gas if the power goes used up. Many utilities also have installed stronger power poles.
“Every hurricane that we have, we have supplemental lessons learned and experience,” said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
As it moved though the Carribean, Fay was blamed for at least 14 deaths in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, including two babies who were cast in a river after a bus crash.
The storm center passed over the Key West around 5 p.m. on Monday, and a hurricane warning was in effect along southwestern Florida from Flamingo to just south of the Tampa Bay area. A tropical clamor warning in tenor in the east from Flagler Beach southward.
At 5 p.m. EDT, Fay was about 145 miles of Fort Myers and influencing north-northwest at about 12 mph. Sustained winds were about 60 mph with some higher gusts.
National Hurricane Center officials said the storm would likely invent landfall sometime Tuesday morning. Forecasters declared Fay would probably be at or near hurricane strength, which is winds of at least 74 mph.
No damage or injuries were immediately reported in the Keys, in which place a few bars and restaurants stubbornly remained open. Authorities declared a possible whirlwind knocked prostrate a tree on Big Coppitt Key and there were scattered power outages as well as local street flooding.
Between 4 and 10 inches of rain is possible across continent Florida, 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.
“This is a broad, truly 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.”
Farther north, residents were not so sanguine. In Punta Gorda — a Gulf Coast community clash arduous by Hurricane Charley in 2004 — the sounds of drills were in the air as function owners attached aluminum storm shutters to windows and doors Monday afternoon.
The very idea of an August storm frightens residents in that place, especially those who rode out the compact but efficient Category 4 hurricane four years ago.
“I am scared,” said Monica Palanza, a Punta Gorda real condition agent who remembers seeing trees topple on her neighbors’ homes in 2004. “You can never be prepared enough.”
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Associated Press Writers Kelli Kennedy and Travis Reed in the Keys, Christine Armario in Tampa, Tamara Lush in Punta Gorda, Matt Sedensky in Naples, Lisa Orkin Emmanuel in Miami, Bill Kaczor and Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee and Sarah Larimer in Orlando contributed to this story.
From: What storm? Keys take Tropical Storm Fay in stride (AP)
