5,000 Evacuate as Hurricane Allison Nears Florida

Residents in a flood-prone area of the Florida Panhandle fled their homes Sunday night as Hurricane Allison moved toward the state with torrential rain and winds of at least 75 m.p.h.

The first hurricane of the 1995 season was expected to move ashore from the Gulf of Mexico between 3 and 7 a.m. EDT today, forecasters said.

People who didn’t evacuate quickly stocked up on supplies.

“Ice, flashlights, batteries, tape, junk food and beer,” said Sheila Simmons, manager at the Circle K convenience store and gas station in Panama City. “And they’re crowding the gas pumps. It’s getting crazy out there.”

About 5,000 people were evacuated from coastal regions in the Big Bend area, said Carl Petteway, emergency management coordinator in Franklin County.

Many residents boarded up homes, packed a few belongings and fled. Traffic leaving the coast was heavy, with many cars towing boats.

People were told to evacuate coastline areas in Franklin, Wakulla, Taylor, Citrus, Dixie, Gulf and Jefferson counties, which were expected to feel the brunt of the hurricane.

Gov. Lawton Chiles declared a state of emergency for the state’s northwest and central Gulf Coast regions.

At 11 p.m. EDT Sunday, Allison’s center was at 28.2 degrees north latitude and 86.1 degrees west longitude, about 120 miles south-southwest of Apalachicola, a Franklin County town about 50 miles southwest of Tallahassee in the Panhandle. It was moving north at 16 m.p.h.

Allison grew into the season’s first hurricane Sunday as it blew across the Gulf of Mexico with heavy rain and headed for Florida.

Its maximum sustained wind speed made it a Category 1 storm, a rating that covers speeds up to 95 m.p.h.--enough to cause damage, said Ed Rappaport, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

“Typically with a Category 1 hurricane, folks in mobile homes are advised to leave. And it can produce a significant storm surge,” he said.

Hurricane warnings were posted from Anclote Keys to Pensacola.