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Fla. Residents Prepare for Hurricane Ivan

Posted on: Monday, 13 September 2004, 06:00 CDT

ST. MARKS, Fla. - Residents of the Florida Panhandle got serious about boarding up windows, stocking food and worrying as deadly Hurricane Ivan appeared to be heading in their direction, although a forecaster said Monday that there was a chance it could weaken before plowing ashore.

At the other end of the state, people who had fled the Florida Keys were told they had dodged the storm's bullet and could go back home.

Emergency officials in several Panhandle counties were expected to decide Monday whether to order evacuations from rural fishing villages and beach communities as Ivan threatened to become the third hurricane to hit the state this summer.

"It's a scary-looking hammer knocker," said 57-year-old Billy Porter, a building contractor who was gearing up for a day of fishing. Porter said he's prepared to ride out the storm at his log house about 4 miles from the water. "I've got a generator for my TV - as long I've got my TV, I'm all right," he said.

Forecasters said Ivan, which strengthened back to a Category 5 storm Sunday night with wind up to 160 mph, could strike somewhere along a huge swath of the Gulf Coast by Wednesday after striking Cuba. They advised residents of the Gulf Coast from west-central Florida to the Louisiana marshes to be leery of the storm that already had killed at least 65 people and injured hundreds in the Caribbean.

With Ivan's path unsettled, Virginia Gros, who lives in a mobile home near Fowl River, Ala., was busy Sunday.

"I think it's going to take the trailer. I'm packing up as much as I can," Gros said, pointing to the vacant concrete pads of neighbors who had already fled.

However, National Hurricane Center meteorologist Michael Formosa said the cooler water of the northern Gulf of Mexico and wind shear could weaken Ivan before it hits the coast, from a Category 5 monster to a Category 3 storm, with sustained wind of 111 to 130 mph.

Farther west along the Gulf Coast, an emergency declaration already was in effect as a precaution for Mississippi's Jackson County. Mississippi's Emergency Management Agency scheduled a briefing Monday to make decisions on whether to send personnel to staging areas that could be in the storm's path, spokeswoman Amy Carruth said.

While Gulf coast residents were on alert, people in the tourist haven of the Keys and populous South Florida were able to relax because Ivan's westward-shifting track meant they were no longer the hurricane's prime target.

At 5 a.m. Monday, Monroe County officials lifted mandatory evacuation orders that began Thursday for tourists and the roughly 79,000 residents in the Keys, a 120-mile island chain.

Ivan had top sustained wind near 160 mph, up from 150 mph on Sunday. The minimum sustained wind speed for Category 5 status is 156 mph. At 8 a.m. it was centered about 110 miles south-southeast of Cuba's western tip, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

The storm was moving toward the west-northwest at 9 mph and was expected to turn gradually toward the northwest. Depending on the exact motion, forecasters said, the storm's center could miss the western tip of Cuba and could possibly move near the tip of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula by Tuesday morning.

State and federal officials and disaster relief crews who already have dealt with Hurricanes Frances and Charley were preparing for Ivan. Federal Emergency Management Agency head Michael Brown said federal aid is in place to help with recovery from the storm.

On Sunday, a few Key West restaurants reopened, beachgoers went kite surfing and shoppers returned to grocery stores.

Tom Bordovsky, 51, was among the Key West residents who never left, saying travel was too expensive. He thought evacuating was necessary, but worried about the effects of so many close calls.

"It's going to harden the hearts of a lot of people because you can only cry wolf so many times," he said.

Keys officials estimated Sunday that the island chain could lose between $16 million to $20 million in tourism-related sales because of Ivan by Thursday, when they're encouraging tourists to return. Already, officials said the evacuation from Hurricane Charley last month cost the Keys $35 million in tourism sales.

Susan Poston, a manager at the Flora-Bama lounge on the Alabama-Florida line, said she hoped Ivan goes to Texas, but wouldn't wish the hurricane on anyone. She said some customers from Florida have been in, but not in much of a party mood because of all the devastation in that state from Hurricanes Frances and Charley.

"It's just depressing," she said.

Insured losses from Hurricane Charley last month were estimated at just under $7 billion, and those from Frances were pegged at $2 billion to $4 billion.

About 283,000 homes and businesses still had no electricity Monday as a result of Hurricane Frances, which plowed ashore on the Florida Panhandle on Sept. 5.

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Associated Press writers Vickie Chachere in Tampa, Allen Breed in Tampa, Hilary Roxe in Key West and Garry Mitchell in Fowl River, Ala., contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

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