Slow Wilma Lets Florida Prepare

Plodding Hurricane Now Expected To Come Ashore On Sunday

(CBS/AP) 
At 11 p.m. EDT, forecasters said Wilma was about 100 miles southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, and about 455 miles southwest of Key West. It was heading northwest at about 6 mph toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, where Mayfield said it could do catastrophic damage.

Although Wilma was expected to approach from the west, forecasters warned that major Atlantic Coast cities including Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach could be hit by strong winds and heavy rains.

CBS News correspondent Jim Acosta reports that the hundreds of people still living in a Florida FEMA trailer village — who lost their homes in Hurricane Charley last year — have only one choice.

"If I can put an engine on this power chair I'll heft everything on my back and I am outta here," said Charlie Eckenrode, a FEMA trailer resident in a wheelchair.

Bush said the state had food, water, ice and other supplies ready, as well as disaster-response teams that included up to 7,500 National Guard members. "We are battle-tested, well-resourced, well-trained," he said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was positioning emergency materials in Jacksonville, Lakeland and Homestead. FEMA acting chief R. David Paulison said the agency has 150 truckloads of ice and 150 truckloads of water, and the Red Cross has 200,000 meals available.

"We are ready for the storm, as much as you can be," Paulison said in Washington.

The governor urged people not to hoard gasoline, which frequently causes long lines at gas stations and some to run out of fuel. Bush said an estimated 200 million gallons of fuel were available at Florida ports, enough for an adequate supply.

In the low-lying, vulnerable Keys, the normally crowded historic district in Key West was eerily quiet Thursday. Tourists and nonresidents were already asked to leave. A mandatory evacuation of residents was expected to start Friday, although some did not seem to be hurried.

Mark Brann was relaxing outside Andy's Scooter Shop where he works. He had little to do without tourists.

"Where are you going to go? They don't know where the storm's going," he said, adding that he thinks he will be safe in his seventh-floor condominium.

Wilma was on a path that could threaten areas hit by Hurricane Charley in August 2004. Some houses and businesses in the area are still boarded up because of that storm.