TAMPA, Fla. – Officials warned about a million residents and tourists to get out of the way of Hurricane Charley, saying parts of Tampa’s downtown and nearby areas could be submerged by the massive storm surge likely when the hurricane strikes Florida’s central gulf coast today.
“It does have the potential of devastating impact. … This is a scary, scary thing,” Gov. Jeb Bush said.
The evacuation zone stretched along Florida’s west coast from Key West to north of Tampa.
Charlie was expected to pass west of the Keys at Florida’s tip early today before hitting the Tampa Bay area in the afternoon with winds up to 110 mph, heavy rain, sporadic tornadoes and the dangerous storm surge, said Hugh Cobb, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. With winds that high, it would be a powerful Category 3 hurricane.
Residents of the Tampa Bay area, where the eye is projected to hit, south to the Naples area were told to expect a storm surge of 10 to 13 feet. State meteorologist Ben Nelson said the surge could reach 16 feet in the Tampa area if Charley hits at 120 mph.
The bulk of the evacuations were in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, which include Tampa and St. Petersburg, a city that sits on a peninsula.
All residents of MacDill Air Force Base, on another peninsula in Tampa Bay, were ordered out, with only essential personnel remaining. MacDill is home to U.S. Central Command, the nerve center of the war in Iraq.
In the Keys, a steady line of traffic, marked by sport utility vehicles pulling boats on trailers, drove north along U.S. 1 on Thursday as visitors and mobile home residents followed orders to evacuate the entire 100-mile-long island chain.
The hurricane bore down after Tropical Storm Bonnie blew ashore Thursday morning on the Florida Panhandle with winds estimated near 50 mph. Bonnie failed to produce any reported flooding, but the one-two punch of tropical weather was highly unusual. Storms have not struck so close together in Florida since 1906.
About 6.5 million of Florida’s 17 million residents were in Charley’s projected path, the U.S. Census Bureau reported.
The evacuation request was Florida’s biggest since 1999, when Hurricane Floyd brushed the state’s east coast and prompted officials to urge a record 1.3 million to evacuate.
Forecasters said Charley had top sustained winds of about 105 mph, up from 90 mph earlier Thursday. It was moving north-northwest near 17 mph and was expected to strengthen. Hurricane force winds extended outward 30 miles from the eye; tropical storm force winds went out 125 miles.
Key West International Airport closed Thursday. Operations at Tampa International Airport were continuing into today.
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