Residents flee ahead of Ernesto

RAIN from Tropical Storm Ernesto started sweeping across the Florida Keys yesterday, as residents hurried to fill gas tanks, gather supplies and board up windows before the main body of the storm strikes.

The storm was expected to make landfall today and forecasters warned it had a chance of regaining hurricane strength.

On the anniversary of Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans, and with memories still fresh of the seven hurricanes that have hit Florida since 2004, state officials urged residents not to wait for Ernesto to strengthen again. Tourists were ordered out of the Keys. Residents were urged out of mobile homes and homes still damaged from previous storms.

Only eight passengers were on the last Greyhound bus leaving Key West, just before 9am yesterday, what driver Enrique Javier called “the last flight out” because the airport had closed.