Tourists, residents told to leave Florida Keys as Hurricane Ivan approaches

MIAMI — Tourists and residents were told Thursday they will have to leave the Florida Keys to avoid mighty Hurricane Ivan, even as the state still struggled with the misery left by Hurricanes Frances and Charley.

Forecasters said Ivan — which strengthened early Thursday to 160 mph — could reach the island chain as soon as Sunday, making it the third hurricane to hit Florida in a month. The last time three hurricanes hit Florida in a single season was 1964, when Cleo, Dora and Isbell hit the state.

Charley struck southwestern Florida on Aug. 13 with 145 mph wind, causing an estimated $6.8 billion in damage and 27 deaths. Frances hit the state's eastern coast early Sunday with 105 mph wind, leaving $2 billion to $4 billion in insured damage and at least 15 dead in the state.

Gov. Jeb Bush said the state had no choice but to go through another round of preparations, though the fact of a third threat seemed unreal.

"Maybe someone creative in Hollywood could come up with something like this, but this is past my imagination," he said.

Ivan has already killed at least 16 people as it tears through the Caribbean, the most powerful hurricane to hit there in a decade. Ninety percent of the homes in Grenada were damaged, looting erupted and a prison was destroyed, leaving inmates on the loose.

At 2 p.m., Ivan's center was 360 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, or about 920 miles southeast of Miami. It had 160 mph wind and was moving west-northwest at about 15 mph.

Forecasters expected Ivan to reach Jamaica by Friday and Cuba by the weekend before hitting the Florida Keys as a Category 4 hurricane, with wind of 131 to 155 mph, late Sunday or early Monday.

Monroe County emergency officials asked tourists to leave the Keys at 9 a.m. Thursday, the third visitor evacuation there in a month, following Charley and Frances. Mobile home residents were urged to begin evacuating at 6 p.m. Thursday, and rest of the county's 79,000 residents were told to prepare to leave Friday.

A single highway of mostly two lanes links mainland Florida to the string of islands ending at Key West, the southernmost city in the continental United States.

The last time everyone on the Keys were told to evacuate was in 2001 for Hurricane Michelle, a 135 mph storm that wound up missing a direct hit on the chain. Officials estimated that only 15 percent of Keys residents left then.