Hurricane Grows; Keys Get Order to Evacuate

Officials ordered residents and tourists to leave the southern half of the Florida Keys on Thursday as Hurricane Dennis, an unusually powerful July storm, attained major-storm status as it slogged north through warm Caribbean waters.

Packing top winds of 135 mph and classified as a Category 4 hurricane, Dennis could subject the Lower Keys to dangerous winds and a 3- to 6-foot storm surge by this afternoon, with the strongest impact tonight and early Saturday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

“We recommend you pack up, secure your property as best you can and leave,” Monroe County Sheriff’s Deputy Becky Herrin said her department advised those in the southernmost Keys.

The evacuation order covered a 49-mile-long sweep of the low-lying island chain, from south of Marathon to Key West. Between 30,000 and 35,000 people were affected, Herrin said, adding: “They’re being told to get out now.”

All tourists in the 100-mile-long archipelago, which has a solitary road link to the mainland of Florida, had been told to start evacuating by noon Thursday. Those staying at hotels and other accommodations on the northern tip of Key Largo were exempt.

“As of right now, we’re sitting tight, boarding up and asking our guests to leave,” Lisa Ferguson, front desk clerk at the Wicker Guesthouse in Key West, said in the late afternoon. “And trying hard to stay calm.”

Last year, when hurricanes were blamed for at least 123 deaths in Florida and more than $40 billion in property losses, three evacuations were ordered in the Keys.

“It’s getting tiresome,” Ferguson said Thursday afternoon. “It’s 89 with a blue sky and a light breeze -- a beautiful beach day,” she said.

The storm already had drenched Jamaica, triggering mudslides that blocked roads. The island’s airports were shut down and hundreds of residents were moved to shelters.

Thunderstorms also covered the Dominican Republic and southern Haiti, where gusts whipped sheets of rain that flooded roads and homes with up to 3 feet of debris-filled water. Tin roofs torn from homes and businesses tumbled in the wind.

Thursday night Dennis was moving into Cuban waters and was forecast to bash the island for about 12 hours before heading toward the Keys.

The Cayman Islands and Cuba -- including the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay -- also were under hurricane warnings. Inside the U.S. detention center, the military played audiotapes in at least eight languages warning that a storm was coming and heavy steel shutters would be closed on some cell windows, said Col. Mike Bumgarner.

“This one means business,” Eric Blake, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center, said of Dennis. “These are the types of systems that can cause significant damage.”

The storm rapidly grew stronger Thursday, with its sustained winds increasing from 100 to 135 mph as it approached Cuba.

Such a hurricane “can really cause disastrous damage,” Blake said.

Although it was still early to tell where Dennis might make landfall in the United States, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center advised residents of the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Florida to monitor the storm’s advance.

The lower Florida Keys were placed under a hurricane warning Thursday, which meant winds of at least 74 mph were expected within the next 24 hours.

Last year, Florida was pounded by an unprecedented four hurricanes and, Blake said, signs were pointing to an eventful 2005. The hurricane season begins June 1 and runs through the end of November. This year there have already been four storms -- Arlene, Bret, Cindy and Dennis -- with winds intense enough to merit their being given named status.

Tropical Storm Cindy, which moved ashore in Louisiana on Tuesday night with 8 inches of rain and 70 mph winds, caused three deaths, knocked out power to thousands, and spawned twisters that toppled trees and caused up to $40 million in damage to the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Georgia.

“This is the earliest we’ve seen the fourth tropical storm form, and it’s unusual to have a hurricane this strong in July,” Blake said. “Usually, these are August-September type systems.”

The implication of the early activity, the meteorologist said, was that 2005 would be another active year.

Not everyone in the famously casual Keys, however, seemed ruffled by forecasters’ predictions. At the Hog’s Breath Saloon, a popular tourist spot on Duval Street, Key West’s main thoroughfare, the staff was expecting a busy Thursday night.

“Tonight we’ll probably do all right,” bartender Frank Carroll said. “Most people aren’t going to be leaving until tomorrow.”

*

Associated Press contributed to this report.