Downgraded hurricane heads for Florida

Last updated at 09:55 29 August 2006


Tropical Storm Ernesto is moving towards south Florida today - the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina - after soaking Cuba with heavy rain.

Ernesto was downgraded to a tropical storm on Sunday when its sustained winds fell below 74 mph (119 kph) as it moved through the Caribbean Sea south of Haiti.

But forecasters said the storm could become a hurricane again and emergency managers issued a hurricane watch for the low-lying Florida Keys, alerting residents to expect Ernesto to bring storm conditions to the island chain.

Tourists have been ordered to evacuate the Keys, part of a staged evacuation that could soon include residents.

Florida residents have been lining up for supplies with the approach of Ernesto, which could strengthen over the warm waters of the Florida Straits.

But the storm is expected to pack less than hurricane strength when it hits - possibly in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area, home to about 5 million people.

Ernesto, which briefly became the Atlantic season's first hurricane on Sunday, killed two people in Haiti before striking Cuba, where it dropped up to 7 inches (18 cm) of rain.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center has said that Ernesto will be near the Florida Keys by tonight.

'Just prepare. It's not fun and games,' Mike Puto, city manager of Marathon in the Keys, told residents.

Forecasters said Ernesto could dump 5 to 10 inches (12-25 cm) of rain over parts of east and south Florida and the Keys through Wednesday. The state has been battered by eight hurricanes in two years.

Officials and residents were mindful of nature's force a year to the day since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast, where it swamped New Orleans, killed 1,500 people and caused $80 billion in damage.

NASA called off the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis from Cape Canaveral this week. Florida declared a state of emergency and television stations reminded residents to fill bathtubs with water and put up hurricane shutters.

Tourists were ordered out of the Florida Keys, a low-lying, 110-mile (177-km) island chain off Florida's southern tip. Courts and schools were closed across the region.

Ernesto made landfall in Cuba near Guantanamo Bay, site of the U.S. naval base where several hundred suspected al Qaeda and Taliban militants are held.

Many of the 600,000 people in Cuba who were evacuated before the storm returned home after Ernesto passed, with no initial reports of deaths or serious damage.

'It wasn't as bad as we expected. There was much less rain,' said Yieney, a receptionist at the Brisas Santa Lucia hotel on the coast of Camaguey province, where 200 package-deal tourists were staying. They were not evacuated.

Ernesto's center stayed over land in Cuba longer than forecasters had expected. Passage over land areas, especially mountains, generally saps a storm's strength.

'This is really good news,' National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield said. "I think the chance of it becoming a hurricane are diminishing.'

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