Keys deserted ahead of Ivan

2004-09-11 16:27

Key West, Florida - A slight westward "wobble" by Hurricane Ivan gave storm-weary Florida a tiny glimmer of hope on Saturday, but the still-threatened Keys stood mostly boarded up, deserted by evacuating residents and tourists well on their way to safety.

Hurricane Ivan and its 241 kph winds were still a couple of days away, but many residents and tourists had already driven north to the mainland.

Before leaving, fatigued residents put up shutters and boarded windows with plywood as business dropped to a trickle in the tourism-dependent island chain.

"Charley hit and the season died," said Jose Moya, a clerk at Millie's Sundries in Key West. "It's going to be a ghost town for the rest of summer - if we make it."

Monroe County officials ordered an evacuation of the entire 160km Keys, which barely rise out of the water and are extremely vulnerable to storm surge. Its the third evacuation in a month for tourists and first in three years for the chain's 79 000 residents.

Ivan was centered about 95km south of Montego Bay, Jamaica, on Saturday morning and moving west-northwest.

Hurricane Center forecasters said Ivan "wobbled" west a few kilometers south of Jamaica, possibly sparing the island the worst.

But forecasters warned it could still move back to its predicted course and hit the state.

Ivan has killed 39 people in Grenada, Venezuela, Tobago, Barbados, and the Dominican Republic.

Ivan was forecast to strike Cuba and then either hit the Keys directly or pass near enough for the islands to feel hurricane force winds, said Richard Knabb, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

From there, Ivan is expected to move north in the Gulf of Mexico, reaching north Florida on Tuesday.

"But that could be anywhere from Jacksonville to Pensacola," Knabb said.

- SAPA