Florida Keys Tourists Evacuate for Storm

Tourists were ordered to leave the Florida Keys on Wednesday, even as the reason for the evacuation--Hurricane Debby--seemed to fall apart during its march toward the U.S. coastline.

Indeed, Debby was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm after its winds dropped from 75 mph to 50 mph during a passage over mountainous Hispaniola, the island shared by the nations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Debby was still headed west, toward a likely landfall at some part of South Florida. But a combination of upper-level wind shear and the storm’s interaction with land reduced it from a minimal hurricane to a ragged area of thunderstorms.

Forecasters predicted that Debby would pass over Cuba early today before slipping into the Gulf of Mexico, trailing with it a batch of storms that could soak South Florida. However, “it doesn’t look like there is any chance of Debby becoming a hurricane, at least in the short term,” said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center here.

Despite the reduced threat, Mayfield noted that the storm could intensify once over the warm waters of the Gulf. He compared Debby to Hurricane Frederic in 1979, which also fell apart over the mountains but exploded into a major storm before slamming into Louisiana.

In the Keys, many tourists were stunned to learn that they had to leave. Skies were sunny, and Debby was still more than 600 miles away.

But with only one road out of the Keys--a chain of islands linked by bridges--Monroe County officials said they could not wait. Traffic was heavy Wednesday after state and county parks and private campgrounds were instructed to close by noon. All large recreational vehicles, travel trailers and tent campers were ordered out.

Public schools in Monroe County canceled classes for today and Friday, and Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park were closed.

At the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, workers readied plywood and sandbags in case the storm veered north. The shuttle Atlantis could be moved off a launch pad into its hangar if it were threatened.

The 80,000 permanent residents of the Keys were not affected by the evacuation orders. But they, as well as many residents of South Florida, began to board up property and check emergency supplies of water, canned food and batteries.

Debby is the fourth named storm of the 2000 hurricane season, and the first to threaten the United States. It passed through the Leeward Islands and north of Puerto Rico, bringing heavy rainfall but causing little wind damage.

The last hurricane to hit South Florida was Irene, blamed for seven deaths in October. The storm flooded much of Key West with up to 10 inches of rain.