Fay’s winds whip Keys, ruffle few
Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008
KEY WEST, Fla. — Tourists jumped on the last plane out of town, store owners shuttered their doors and palm trees bent in gusty winds as Tropical Storm Fay bore down on the Florida Keys on Monday after killing at least 14 people in the Caribbean.
However, some residents in the 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 ahead of Fay’s core were pelting the low-lying Keys island chain. Sustained winds of about 33 mph bent palm trees, and some gusts hit 51 mph.
The sixth named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season was expected to become a hurricane before curling up the state’s west coast and hitting Florida’s mainland sometime today.
“There are bad storms and there are nice ones, and this is a nice one,” said Becky Weldon, a 43-year-old guest house manager in Key West. “It cleans out all 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 and repeatedly urged people 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. Since the busy 2004-05 storm years, when eight hurricanes hammered Florida, some residents have taken steps such 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 state’s emergency management chief.
However, Fugate said, “I’ve seen as many people die when I have a blob-shaped asymmetrical storm that they dismiss as not being very dangerous.” The state took steps to make 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 call to prepare was Chris Fleeman, a 35-year-old mechanic on Big Pine Key who was busy helping friends and family members seal up their homes.
“I’ve got a generator, and I’ve got a concrete home 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 now requires some 970 gas stations along hurricane evacuation routes statewide to have backup generators so they can keep pumping gas if the power goes out. Many utilities also have installed stronger power poles.
“Every hurricane that we have, we have additional lessons learned and experience,” said U. S. Sen. Bill Nelson, DFla.
As it moved though the Caribbean, Fay was blamed for at least 10 deaths in Haiti and 14 in the Caribbean overall, including two babies who were found in a river after a bus crash.
U. N. peacekeepers in Haiti arrived at the scene of the bus crash and confirmed that 41 passengers made it out safely, contrary to earlier reports that at least 30 passengers were feared dead, said Fred Blaise, a spokesman for the United Nations police force in Haiti.
Blaise told The Associated Press that the peacekeepers saw the bodies of the two infants who died when their bus tried to cross the swollen Riviere Glace, as well as that of a man who drowned separately in the same river.
At least two other buses crossed the river safely just before the third one flipped, witnesses said. David Pierre, one of three mayors of Beaumont, the town where the accident happened, told Radio Metropole that officials have been trying to get a bridge built in the area for years because of flooding.
Silvera Guillaume, a Haitian civil-protection coordinator in the area who had earlier said 30 or more passengers were feared dead, also told the AP after arriving at the scene that only three bodies were found. Guillaume said police and Red Cross workers were still searching. An accurate count of the passengers was impossible to come by.
A search party of fewer than 20 police, Red Cross and civilprotection workers was looking for other victims along the mountain river Monday afternoon, but Guillaume said he did not anticipate finding more bodies.
Seven other people died in storm-related flooding in Haiti, civil protection chief Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste said, and four deaths were blamed on the storm in the Dominican Republic. Fay then passed over Cuba on its way to Florida.
Cuban authorities evacuated nearly 10, 000 residents in five provinces, closed ports and suspended carnival celebrations in Cienfuegos. But their worst fear — a direct hit on Old Havana’s dilapidated buildings — was not realized. There were no reports of major damage or flooding, and most evacuees headed home Monday.
The storm center passed over Key West around 4 p.m. Monday, and a hurricane warning was in effect along southwestern Florida from Flamingo to just south of the Tampa Bay area. A tropical storm warning was in effect in the east from Flagler Beach southward.
At 10 p.m. CDT, Fay was about 60 miles south of Naples, Fla., and moving north at nearly 9 mph. Sustained winds were about 60 mph with some higher gusts. The center of the storm was near latitude 25. 3 north and longitude 81. 9 west.
National Hurricane Center officials said the storm would likely make landfall this morning. Forecasters said 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, where a few bars and restaurants stubbornly remained open. Authorities said a possible tornado knocked down a tree on Big Coppitt Key and scattered power failures occurred, as well as local street flooding.
Between 4 and 10 inches of rain is possible across mainland 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, 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.” Farther north, residents were not so sanguine. In Punta Gorda — a Gulf Coast community hit hard by Hurricane Charley in 2004 — the sounds of drills were in the air as business owners attached aluminum storm shutters to windows and doors Monday afternoon.
The very idea of an August storm frightens residents there, especially those who rode out the compact but powerful Category 4 hurricane four years ago.
“I am scared,” said Monica Palanza, a Punta Gorda real estate agent who remembers seeing trees topple on her neighbors’ homes in 2004.
“You can never be prepared enough.” Information for this article was contributed by Brian Skoloff, Kelli Kennedy, Travis Reed, Christine Armario, Tamara Lush, Matt Sedensky, Lisa Orkin Emmanuel, Bill Kaczor, Brendan Farrington, Sarah Larimer, Evens Sanon, Johnathan M. Katz and Will Weissert of The Associated Press.
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