Florida Evacuations Begin as Wilma Churns in Caribbean

Florida Evacuations Begin as Wilma Churns in Caribbean - New York Times: "A slightly weakened but still fierce Hurricane Wilma continued to spin through the Caribbean today, as scores of tourists and residents began evacuating low-lying coastal areas in the storm's projected path that could reach south Florida by Sunday.

Wilma made its slow way toward Mexico's Cozumel island this afternoon with winds of 145 m.p.h., making it a Category 4 storm, the National Hurricane Center said. At the rate it is traveling, about 5 miles per hour, it was predicted to give a 24-hour reprieve to Florida residents, who had initially expected it to arrive on their shores by Saturday.While it had weakened from a strength of 175 miles per hour on Wednesday, the Hurricane Center warned that Wilma would probably strengthen again in the next day.
"All interests in the Florida Keys and the Florida peninsula should closely monitor the progress of extremely dangerous Hurricane Wilma," the center said in an online advisory. "Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion."

Tourists were asked to leave the Florida Keys as emergency and rescue teams prepared for the storm and the Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a statement that it has begun placing water, ice and tents in areas where Wilma was forecast to strike. But a mandatory evacuation order was held off until Friday, after the storm slowed, The Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, large swaths of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico were subject to a hurricane warning today and everyone on the island of Isla Mujeres, off the coast of Cancun, was told to leave, according to the news agency. A tropical storm warning remained in place for parts of Cuba, Belize and Honduras as local authorities prepared to evacuate thousands of inhabitants from endangered areas.

This afternoon, the storm's center was about 160 miles southeast of Cozumel, according to the National Hurricane Center's advisory. Computer models still predict that the storm will continue moving northwest today, possibly striking the Yucatán Peninsula, before it bounces off a cold mass of air descending from the north and makes a sharp right turn to the northeast. If the center of Wilma makes landfall on the Yucatán Peninsula it could create flooding and "large and dangerous battering waves," according to the center.

Under the projected path, the storm will hit the west coast of southern Florida on Sunday and then continue to the northeast, passing over Palm Beach, while leaving the recently battered Gulf Coast states and their oil installations largely untouched..."