Florida braced for hurricane Ivan

Many businesses were shuttered and streets were largely deserted as residents fled from this normally bustling island resort town of Key West amid concern that Hurricane Ivan was heading for Florida.

Monroe County officials ordered an evacuation of the entire 100-mile Florida Keys, a chain of low-lying islands that are vulnerable to storm surges. It was the third evacuation in a month for tourists and first in three years for the chain’s 79,000 residents.

But some people stayed behind, determined to ride out the storm or waiting to make up their minds.

Lauren Oed casually painted her toenails on the wooden dock of a marina, undecided about whether to leave or face the hurricane on the sailboat of her friend, Eddie Mathis.

“Being on a boat anywhere for a hurricane isn’t a good thing,” said Mathis, who has lived on the boat for a decade. “But you don’t want to give up everything you’ve got, everything you’ve worked for.”

The deadly storm smashed into Jamaica early Saturday with ferocious waves and wind nearing 155 mph (249 kph). Later Ivan notched up 165mph (265 kph) sustained winds, making it a Category Five hurricane.

Ivan headed for the Cayman Islands and Cuba on a path that could take it near the Florida Keys on Monday. But forecasters said the storm’s track made a gradual turn that could also send the eye west of the Keys and spare the island chain and south Florida from its strongest winds.

Billy Wagner, senior director of Monroe County Emergency Management, said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the forecast, but officials had no plans to ease protective measures.

“From a psychological standpoint, it feels better, but from a meteorological standpoint, we’re not out of the woods yet,” said Matt Strahan, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Key West.

State officials, still manning round-the-clock operations since hurricanes Charley and Frances struck in the last month, were preparing for a potential strike on the Keys, charting plans to reach storm victims by air and by sea for search-and-rescue efforts and to deliver relief supplies if any of the bridges that connect the islands to the mainland are impassable.

“If those roads and those approaches are damaged, we won’t be able to drive into the Keys. We have to have an alternative to get teams in there,” said Craig Fugate, the state’s director of emergency management.

Officials said some operations helping in the recovery from Charley and Frances were being shifted or temporarily suspended but stressed that support for victims of those storms would continue as Ivan approached.

“We’re working together to make sure that we continue to provide for the recovery of Charley, for the relief of the people that were hit by Frances and now the preparation for what appears to be an even bigger storm,” Governor Jeb Bush said.

“Sometimes I wish that these things wouldn’t all happen in our state all at once, but if there was a place that could rebound from this, it’s Florida,” he said.