Residents rethink refusal to evacuate

SOME residents of the Florida Keys were rethinking their refusal to evacuate for Hurricane Wilma today after the storm isolated them, submerged streets under up to five feet of water and turned out their lights.

No travel was possible in or out of Key West.

Assistant to the mayor, Jay Gewin, said 35% of the city was flooded, including the airport.

The lone highway connecting the islands to each other and the mainland, was also affected.

Wilma made landfall before dawn in south-west Florida as a Category 3 storm, stronger than expected, and knocked out power to the entire Keys island chain.

Restaurant owner Amy Culver-Aversa said: "A bunch of us that are the old-time Key Westers are kind of waking up this morning, going 'Well, maybe I should have paid a little more attention'."

But she soon had a generator going and was giving out coffee, and she expected to reopen tomorrow.

While Wilma's eye came ashore on the Gulf Coast, about 95 miles to the north of Key West, the hurricane's strongest wind was on the south side, near the Keys.

Officials said more than 90% of year-round Keys residents refused to heed evacuation orders.

Elaine Chinnis, out walking her dogs on Duval Street a few hours before Wilma hit, said: "We're not New Orleans."

Islanders are hurricane weary they've dealt with four this year alone and hurricane savvy. But while the previous three storms caused little damage in the Keys, Wilma was worse than residents expected.

Key West streets were flooded four blocks inland from the shore.

Chris Elwell, whose car was submerged to its roof, said: "Within 45 minutes, it went from six inches to four or five feet deep."

Bartender Noah Ackerman said: "It was like a train coming on both sides of me." He tried to ride out the storm in a house elevated on stilts but gave up and left to seek better shelter.

"All the streets are rivers," he said. "You can see water just rushing through."

Islanders said they weren't being cavalier when they refused to leave, they just weren't afraid of Wilma.

Ms Chinnis, before Wilma arrived, said: "It seems like we know more than the weather people. They seem to over-exaggerate everything."

That attitude frustrates public officials.

Director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Max Mayfield, said: "We've been preaching this for decades, and you know, the government can only do so much. I don't know how we motivate people."