Florida Faces Hurricane Peril; Cold Hits Midwest

A cold front chilled the central part of the nation Sunday, setting record low temperatures in 25 cities, as the second snowfall in a week to hit upstate New York and Vermont stranded motorists and left hundreds without power.

In south Florida, hurricane warnings were posted Sunday, and officials activated emergency plans and readied for possible evacuations as Tropical storm Floyd aimed its 60-m.p.h. fury at the Keys.

Key West was expected to begin feeling the effects of the storm before noon today.

Late Sunday, the storm’s center was on the western tip of Cuba, about 275 miles southwest of Key West.

Cold Spreads Southeast

Meanwhile, a high pressure system from western Canada spread cool temperatures from the eastern Rockies into the lower Mississippi Valley.

“It’s moving toward the Southeast very slowly,” said Dan McCarthy of the National Weather Service. “It will probably settle in the Ohio Valley before it pushes into the East Coast.”

Snow advisories were posted for northern New York state and much of Vermont. As much as four inches of snow fell on Montpelier, Vt. and three inches was measured in Green Mountain, Vt., and in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.

The early snow also stranded motorists and left at least 1,000 homes without power in Vermont.

“We went right from summer into winter,” said Ray Burke, a dispatcher with the state Transportation Agency.

Slippery roads caused a tractor-trailer on Route 100 in Jamaica to jackknife early Sunday, and motorists were reported stranded off the side of Route 302 in Orange, officials said.

Utility officials said the snow caused power outages affecting about 1,000 customers in the vicinity of Manchester, Bennington, Middlebury, Rutland, Woodstock and Springfield.

Record lows for the date were set in 25 cities and tied in seven others from Idaho to Michigan. Records that stood for more than 100 years were broken in Dubuque, Iowa, where it was 23, and Omaha, Neb., where it was 28.

Ten of the record lows were in Iowa, including readings of 16 at Waterloo and 17 at Mason City and Spencer.