The Associated Press
KEY WEST, Fl. - Thousands of residents had been ordered to evacuate Sunday and businesses and emergency officials prepared rescue and relief plans as forecasters predicted Hurricane Wilma would pick up speed “like a rocket” on a course toward Florida.
The southern half of Florida’s peninsula was under a hurricane warning Sunday in anticipation of Wilma, a Category 2 storm with 100 mph sustained wind. Although still far from the state, Wilma’s outer bands of rain had already caused street flooding in a South Florida suburb.
Tropical storm-force wind was expected to begin lashing the state late Sunday and meteorologists said the heart of the storm was expected to roar across the state Monday. (More on Wilma)
“The time of preparing is rapidly moving into time of action as people are evacuating,” Florida emergency management director Craig Fugate said.
Hurricane center director Max Mayfield predicted Wilma would dramatically pick up speed later Sunday and its top wind speed would increase.
“It’s really going to take off like a rocket,” he said. “It’s going to start moving like 20 mph.”
About 160,000 people in the state were under mandatory evacuation orders, including the entire population of the Florida Keys island chain, according to officials and Census data. There was no way of knowing exactly how many actually left, but it appeared only about 20 percent of the 78,000 Keys residents fled, senior Monroe County emergency management director Billy Wagner said.
“If they don’t get out of there, they’re going to be in deep trouble,” he said Sunday.
Evacuation orders also covered barrier islands and coastal areas in Collier and Lee counties, such as Fort Myers Beach, Marco Island, Sanibel and parts of Naples.
Tropical storm-force wind of at least 39 mph is expected in the Keys and the southwestern part of the state by Sunday evening, and in Miami and other Atlantic coast cities around midnight. The center of Wilma was expected to hit Florida’s southwest coast as a Category 1 or 2 hurricane early Monday, although forecasters warned that a storm’s strength can be unpredictable.
Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman Butch Kinerney said resources ranging from dozens of military helicopters to 13.2 million ready-to-eat meals were standing by.
“We’re ready for Wilma and, whatever the storm brings, we’re set to go,” Kinerney said.
Wilma’s outer rain bands caused hip-deep street flooding Saturday in some neighborhoods in the Fort Lauderdale area, forcing people out of at least 50 apartments and houses. More than 5 inches of rain fell in that area, Broward County and National Weather Service officials said.
Gladys Sparrow, a 44-year-old home health care worker, said water rose to a foot inside her home, destroying clothes and furniture and bringing in bugs and trash.
“It’s dirty, wet, muggy, everything,” Sparrow said.
Four to 8 inches of rain was expected in southern Florida through Tuesday, with up to a foot in some areas. Category 2 hurricanes can be accompanied by storm surge flooding of 8 to 13 feet. Battering waves could be on top of that.
At a shelter set up in Florida International University in west Miami-Dade, Robert Line, 48, of Key West, waited for the storm with his wife after evacuating the island city some 135 miles south of Miami.
“We’re treating it like a vacation,” Robert Line said before admitting that tensions were running high at the shelter. “Everybody’s stressed out. Everybody’s walking on eggshells.”