Floridians flee lower Keys as Rita nears

KEY WEST, Fla. — Residents boarded up windows Monday and evacuated the low-lying Florida Keys as Tropical Storm Rita gathered strength in the Bahamas, threatening to grow into a hurricane with a potential 8-foot storm surge.

In New Orleans, the mayor suspended his plan to start bringing residents back to the city after forecasters warned Rita could charge through the Gulf of Mexico and possibly reach his city's already weakened levees. Oil prices surged on the possibility that oil and gas production would be interrupted once again.

The storm had top sustained winds of 70 mph Monday evening, and it was expected to strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane, with winds of at least 74 mph, by the time it approached the Keys early today.

"The main concern now is the Florida Keys," said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. "It's moving over very warm water, and that's extremely favorable for development."

Hurricane warnings were posted for the Keys and Miami-Dade County, the hurricane center said. Residents and visitors were ordered to clear out of the entire chain of islands, connected by just one highway. Voluntary evacuation orders were posted for some 134,000 Miami-Dade residents of coastal areas such as Miami Beach.

"This storm has some potential to it. The time to go is now," said state emergency management director Craig Fugate.

While many Keys residents take pride in staying put during hurricanes, others said they were worried because of Katrina's devastation of Louisiana and Mississippi. Most stores on Key West's Duval Street were boarded up Monday, and Duval and other streets were nearly empty as the sky turned cloudy.

"We're going north, wherever the storm isn't going," John Williams said after he and Lisa Sparks got married Monday morning on the beach in Key West. They joked that if they had a baby girl they would name her Rita.

Rita is the 17th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, making this the fourth busiest season since record-keeping started in 1851. The record is 21 tropical storms in 1933. Six hurricanes have hit Florida in the last 13 months.

The last hurricane to directly hit Key West was 1998's Hurricane Georges, which slammed the city with 105 mph winds, damaging hundreds of homes and closing Key West to tourists for two weeks.

Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday the highway patrol reported that traffic out of the Keys was moving well on U.S. 1. However, lines were forming at gas stations.