South Florida’s Eastern Coast Steels for Katrina to Become a Hurricane

On a collision course with South Florida, Tropical Storm Katrina threatened to build into a hurricane, unleash torrential rains and trigger severe flooding, forecasters said Wednesday.

With landfall projected Friday morning, the region was expected to feel the storm’s outer bands today. Forecasters said the storm would dump 6 to 20 inches of rain.

“We’re going to get swamped here is what it amounts to,” said meteorologist Jim Lushine of the National Weather Service in Miami, which issued a flood watch through Saturday night.

A hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning were issued from Vero Beach to Florida City near the southern tip of the state, and Broward County emergency managers called for voluntary evacuation of mobile homes and the barrier islands.

Broward County schools will be closed today and Friday; Palm Beach County schools planned to hold classes today and close Friday; and Miami-Dade schools will be closed today and had not decided about Friday.

By this morning, Katrina was expected to be about 100 miles southeast of Pompano Beach, which would bear the brunt under the projected path.

Because the storm was moving slowly into warm waters, potentially it could grow into a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 96 mph or greater, forecaster Eric Blake said.

“We tell people to be prepared for one category stronger than forecast because of the uncertainties in our intensity predictions,” he said. “And the storm looks like it’s developing.”

Hurricane officials warned that the 140-mile-wide system could cause extensive damage on either side of the forecast track. Conditions were expected to deteriorate steadily today as waves of rain passed through. By this afternoon, winds will pick up to 40 mph or greater, Lushine said.

By midnight, the winds are to whip up to more than 60 mph. The heaviest rains and strongest winds are to arrive early Friday as the storm core approaches the coastline.