Florida Keys emptied as hurricane rolls across

Associated Press

KEY WEST, Fla. – The Florida Keys were ordered evacuated Sunday as meteorologists warned that the chain of islands likely would be brushed by Hurricane Michelle.

The hurricane barreled into Cuba on Sunday, sending a wall of water into an outlying island, damaging homes and knocking out communications. Emergency workers were forced to rely on ham radios.

The Cuban government shut down power across the island, apparently as a precaution.

Castro called an impromptu news conference in Havana late Sunday, saying 750,000 people had been evacuated and noting that Michelle had entered Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, on the southern Zapata Peninsula. He compared the hurricane to the invasion by a CIA-funded army of exiles that landed there in a botched attempt to overthrow him 40 years ago.

Its top winds at 135 mph, Michelle was not expected to strike Florida directly. If the hurricane were to deviate slightly to the north – off its projected track to the central Bahamas – the Florida Keys and South Florida could be pelted with heavy rain and strong winds.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami issued a hurricane warning for all of the Keys, projecting that winds of 75 mph or more could reach the area Sunday and remain today. Gusts – up to 52 mph in Sobrero Key – and heavy surf were already pounding the area’s beaches.

The Keys, a chain of some 40 islands stretching 128 miles, have a little more than 80,000 permanent residents, plus visitors. They are connected by highway bridges, but only two spans connect the first island, Key Largo, to the mainland.

The storm made landfall on Cuba’s southern Zapata Peninsula on Sunday afternoon, and was still hovering over the island late in the day – and weakening, its winds dropping to 110 mph.

While there were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths, Michelle had knocked out phone lines across Cuba, making communications nearly impossible. Authorities had evacuated more than a half-million people from low-lying areas on the island.

In Havana, the streets were nearly deserted Sunday afternoon as heavy rains and howling winds drove residents indoors.

On Sunday, Michelle also created an 18-foot storm surge on the outlying island of Cayo Largo on Cuba’s south coast, but there was no immediate word on what damage it caused.

The storm has already killed 12 people.

The center of Michelle should have passed over Cuba by midnight Sunday and headed into the eastern Florida Straits, said Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center.

Monroe County officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for all the Keys early Sunday, but later modified it, saying those who remained on the islands could stay, but no one could return. Miami-Dade County officials ordered the evacuation of a small portion of the county. Public schools in both counties will be closed today.

The evacuation orders came a day after Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency.

“It appears that the storm has veered to the east, thankfully,” Bush said Sunday. But, “It’s still a very powerful storm … clearly there’s going to be some impact.”

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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