Hurricane Rita threatens Florida Keys

By Michael Christie

MIAMI (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Rita strengthened into a
hurricane on Tuesday and lashed the low-lying islands of the
Florida Keys with gusty squalls and heavy rain.

All 80,000 residents had been ordered out of the Keys on
Monday but many stayed behind in boarded-up homes to await
Rita’s arrival. The hurricane was expected to strengthen
further as it moves into 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, which sent
intermittent squalls over the Miami area as the main core
neared the Keys.

“Stay home. No matter what, we’re going to have lousy
weather,” he said. 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 the 17th tropical storm of an exceptionally busy
Atlantic hurricane season became a hurricane when its sustained
winds strengthened to 74 mph (119 kph).

It was expected become a major hurricane with sustained
winds of at least 111 mph (178 kph), said the U.S. National
Hurricane Center in Miami.

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 12 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 is 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)