South Florida Braces for Hurricane Erin : Weather: Storm is expected to blow ashore today. Residents scramble to board up homes and stockpile food, water. Gas stations are jammed.

Hurricane Erin drew a bead on South Florida on Monday, gaining strength as it headed slowly westward over the Atlantic and sending Miami-area residents into a frantic rush of last-minute preparation.

More than 600,000 coastal residents from Palm Beach to the Florida Keys were ordered to evacuate their homes by early evening, when the storm is expected to blow ashore with winds that could approach 85 m.p.h. Hurricane warnings extended from Vero Beach to Key West and a hurricane watch was posted for Florida’s west coast.

The rapidity of the storm’s growth Monday, from a disorganized tropical storm to a minimal hurricane with winds of 75 m.p.h., had thousands scrambling to board up windows, tie down pleasure boats and stockpile food and water. Gas stations were jammed.

“We’re pumping gas at the rate of 2,000 gallons an hour and we’ll be out by late afternoon,” said Angelo Zervos, manager of an Amoco station in South Miami. Normally, Zervos said, he sells 6,000 gallons of gas a day.

In Tallahassee, state officials declared an emergency, ordered state offices south of Ft. Lauderdale closed at 2 p.m. and placed police and National Guard troops on standby. Gov. Lawton Chiles said that he was cutting short his vacation to return to the capital late Monday.

On its stormy path through the Bahamas, Erin lashed the islands with several inches of rain and kicked up seas as high as 14 feet. Bahamasair canceled dozens of flights Monday.

In a region where many residents are still reeling--financially and psychically--from 1992’s powerful Hurricane Andrew, even a small storm causes a rush of anxiety.

“Homestead is paralyzed almost,” said Valeria Cott, who runs a travel agency in the farming town, which was nearly blown off the map by Andrew. “All the shops are closed, food stores are packed, homes boarded up and we are selling a lot of plane tickets to people who just want to get out of town.”

Businesses throughout South Florida closed early Monday and by noontime long lines of customers jammed grocery stores and building supply outlets. “Plywood, batteries, flashlights, gas cans, tarps, you name it,” said Victor Chin, manager of a Home Depot store in South Dade County, when asked what customers were buying. “Fortunately, we have trucks of more supplies coming in.”

Orders of evacuations surprised many coastal residents, including those who live in Miami Beach. “It’s never too soon to warn people but the wind doesn’t merit evacuation,” said Nelson Salas, who lives in a beachfront condominium. “I’m not going to leave. I’ve got my hurricane shutters.”

But Kate Hale, Dade County’s director of emergency management, defended the evacuation decision. “The only reason we are asking you to go is that we think your life is at risk if you stay,” she said.

Hurricane forecasters said that Erin was following a path similar to Andrew’s in August, 1992. Andrew was a Category 4 storm, with sustained winds of 145 m.p.h. or better, which led to about 25 deaths in Florida and $30 billion in damage.

In South Florida, where rainfall is already nearly 12 inches above normal, Erin’s chief threat appears to be flooding, not wind, forecasters said.

But the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season also carries the potential of re-emerging from its trek across the Florida peninsula, and re-forming and strengthening once over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, in southeast Texas, the remnants of the season’s fourth tropical storm, named Dean, moved inland to bring up to 10 inches of rain in parts of central and east Texas.

Today, moisture associated with that system is expected to move northward, collide with a cold front over the Midwest and touch off more stormy weather.