Hurricane Wilma roaring towards Florida

KEY WEST (Florida)—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 South Florida.
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. “The time of preparing is rapidly moving into time of action as people are evacuating,” Florida emergency management director Craig Fugate said.
Wilma had been joined by Tropical Storm Alpha, which formed south Saturday off the Dominican Republic as the record 22nd named storm for the Atlantic season. It was the first time forecasters exhausted the regular list of names and had to turn to the Greek alphabet for labels in almost 60 years of naming storms. The previous record of 21 tropical storms and hurricanes had stood since 1933.
By 8 a.m. EDT on Sunday, Wilma had maximum sustained wind near 100 mph. It was centered about 90 miles north-northeast of Cancun, Mexico, or about 315 miles west-southwest of Key West, and was moving toward the northeast at about 8 mph. 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 should make landfall on Florida’s southwest coast as a Category 1 or 2 hurricane around sunrise Monday, forecasters said.
However, a storm’s strength can be unpredictable. “Because of that, we’re asking everyone to prepare for a Category 3, one category stronger, just in case,” hurricane center Deputy Director Ed Rappaport said Sunday.
Alpha was expected to weaken as it turned north from the Dominican Republic. Alpha “is not going to be a threat to the United States,” Mayfield said. “I want to make that very clear.” 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”.—Agencies