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Tropical Storm Fay threatens Florida mainland
Tropical Storm Fay headed towards the Florida mainland on Monday, after sweeping over the Florida Keys with heavy rain and 97 km per hour winds, and killing more than 50 people in the Caribbean.
- Agencies
- Published: 09:11 August 19, 2008
- An couple walk in the rain as Tropical Storm Fay approaches the Florida Keys in Big Pine Key, Florida.
- Image Credit: AP
Key West, Florida: Tropical Storm Fay headed towards the Florida mainland on Monday, after sweeping over the Florida Keys with heavy rain and 97 km per hour winds, and killing more than 50 people in the Caribbean.
The sixth storm of the 2008 Atlantic season did not reach hurricane strength before rolling across the vulnerable, low-lying Florida island chain, where authorities reported minor flooding.
Forecasters said it would likely be at or near hurricane force when it strikes the west coast of Florida on Tuesday, somewhere near the beach resort area of Fort Myers, the Miami-based US National Hurricane Centre said.
Although its path was far from US oil and gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, some energy companies pulled workers from offshore platforms. Orange juice futures prices shot up on fears Fay could hit Florida's main citrus growing areas.
The authorities in the archipelago had ordered visitors to evacuate on Sunday, creating heavy traffic on the highway out of the islands on the state's tip. By Monday the traffic had thinned considerably, police said, with many residents maintaining a nonchalant view of the storm's threat.
Fay was moving north-northwest and was expected to curve to the northeast into Florida's west coast. Densely populated Miami-Fort Lauderdale in the southeast of the state was buffeted by bands of heavy rains and gusty winds. The storm crossed Cuba without apparently causing serious damage.
In Haiti, witnesses said about 50 people died when a bus tried to cross a river swollen by rain. Eight others were killed in Haiti and the Dominican Republic and two died in Jamaica when their car was caught in a flooded crossing.
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