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Florida Keys batten down for Rita

Posted on: Tuesday, 20 September 2005, 07:47 CDT

By Michael Christie

MIAMI (Reuters) - Gusty squalls and heavy rain began to lash the Florida Keys on Tuesday as Tropical Storm Rita raced toward the low-lying islands.

All 80,000 residents were ordered out of the Keys on Monday but many remained behind in boarded-up homes to await the arrival of Rita. The storm was expected to strengthen into a hurricane as it enters the Gulf of Mexico where deadly Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc three weeks ago.

"It's raining pretty hard (but) there's no big wind yet," said Keys resident Mare Contrare, who protected her house with aluminum sheets. Contrare said it seemed too early to judge whether staying in the storm's path had been a mistake. "At this point it seems fine," she said.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez cautioned southern Florida not to dismiss the power of the coming storm, even as it struggled to reach hurricane strength.

"Tropical Storm Rita is a serious threat. Do not underestimate this storm," he said. "Stay home. No matter what, we're going to have lousy weather."

Schools, many government offices and some businesses were closed on Tuesday.

A Louisiana official warned that levees in New Orleans, where hundreds died in Katrina's floods, would fail again if the city were smashed by a new storm surge. Major Ray Nagin suspended plans for some residents to return to the sodden city.

Oil companies only starting to recover from Katrina evacuated Gulf oil rigs. Private forecasters said there was a 40 percent chance that damaging hurricane-force winds would directly affect major Gulf energy production areas.

Rita was expected to become a major hurricane with sustained winds of at least 111 mph (178 kph) as it drew strength from warm Gulf waters after passing by the Keys on Tuesday, said the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

By 8 a.m. EDT, the 17th tropical storm of an exceptionally busy Atlantic hurricane season had sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph), just 4 mph (6.4 km/h) short of hurricane status. The winds had not increased since Monday afternoon.

Rita's center was about 100 miles east-southeast of Key West, Florida. The storm was headed west-northwest at about 15 mph (24 kph) and was expected to reach the Texas Gulf Coast later in the week, forecasters said.

Rita was expected to drench the Keys, a 110-mile (177-km) island chain, with up to 15 inches of rain and send a wall of seawater up to 9 feet above normal surging over the islands.

Military cargo planes evacuated the Keys' three acute-care hospitals.

Tropical storm-force winds were also being felt in the Miami area, home to 2.3 million people. About 3,900 homes and businesses were without power in Miami-Dade County, according to state officials.

Rita would be the seventh hurricane to hit Florida in 13 months.

Hurricane warnings were also in effect for the northwest islands of the Bahamas and northwestern Cuba.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30 and produces an average of about 11 tropical storms or hurricanes. Forecasters had predicted an unusual 2005 season with up to 21 storms due to warm sea temperatures and other conditions favorable to hurricanes.

(Additional reporting by Michael Peltier in Tallahassee)

Source: REUTERS

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