Hurricane Warning Issued For Florida
Forecasters issued a hurricane warning for Florida's Gulf Coast on Monday as Tropical Storm Alberto, the first named storm of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season, quickly and unexpectedly gained strength.
Officials warned that some areas could see a storm surge of up to 10 feet. Rain was already falling and two tornados had formed, although no injuries or damage were reported, the National Weather Service said.
The warning from Longboat Key near Sarasota to the Ochlockonee River south of Tallahassee means Tropical Storm Alberto was expected to produce hurricane conditions within the next 24 hours.
"We're talking about powerful forces of nature," Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said. "People need to take this very seriously."
Bush signed a declaration of emergency that allows him to call up the National Guard and put in place laws against price gouging.
Meteorologists initially thought Alberto wouldn't reach hurricane strength, but the storm's sustained wind accelerated from 50 mph to 70 mph in a three-hour period Monday morning, the National Hurricane Center said. The minimum wind speed for a hurricane is 74 mph.
"This potentially could be a hurricane, it has a potential wide impact for a lot of people in our state," Bush told the emergency response team monitoring the storm in Tallahassee.
At 2 p.m. EDT, Alberto was centered about 180 miles southwest of Cedar Key and was moving northeast at about 10 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. Its top sustained wind speed remained at 70 mph, unchanged from 11 a.m., the center said.
Alberto's core wasn't expected to reach Florida until Tuesday, but with tropical storm-force wind stretching 230 miles from the center, powerful gusts may be felt long before it makes landfall.
Check Alberto's progress with our Storm TrackerForecasters said that 30 inches of rain could fall over the western half of Cuba, creating a threat of flash floods and mudslides, and that 8 inches could fall over the Florida Keys and the state's Gulf Coast.
CBS' Portia Siegelbaum reports 26,000 residents of Pinar del Rio Province in westernmost Cuba have been evacuated, and Sunday night, heavy rains from the outer bands of Tropical Storm Albert hit the island.
Cuba's top meteorologist Jose Rubiera warned that the rainfall affecting the western provinces, including the capital, would not begin to taper off until Monday afternoon.
Some flooding is reported in low-lying areas, following as much as 20 inches of rain in just 24 hours, according to Cuban TV. Particularly hard-hit is the tobacco growing town of San Juan y Martinez, where fields are under several inches of water.
No deaths or injuries have been reported. Vidal Perez, the deputy head of the Pinar del Rio Civil Defense Council, says they will have to wait for the rains to stop and the waters to recede before crop damages could be estimated.
In some parts of Florida, forecasters say Alberto doesn't pose a major threat and should actually provide much needed rain, CBS News correspondent Jim Acosta reports.
On the east coast of Florida, the prospect of a wet storm without hurricane-force wind was welcomed by firefighters who have been battling wildfires for six weeks.
"A good soaking rain would do a lot to help stop the fires in our area," said Pat Kuehn, a spokeswoman for Volusia County Fire Services. "It has been a hard fire season. We've had several fires a week here."
Residents of the state's Gulf Coast are watching the storm, including Patricia Haberland, whose back porch was flooded by 12 inches of rain in March. She put a few valuables in plastic bins this weekend just to be on the safe side.
"Other than that, we're carrying on as usual, going to work, going to church," said Haberland, 52. "It doesn't look like it's going to have a major impact on our area."
"It was a reminder like, okay, reality just hit us," a Clearwater resident told Acosta.
The storm is not expected to cross the Florida Keys, but some tourists are not taking any chances on the low-lying islands.
"I had a bunch of people check out," said Nikki LaMarca, front desk manager at Courtney's Place in Key West. "It's amazing. People are actually leaving."
In Cuba, Civil Defense officials say some 400 residents of Havana were evacuated but so far rivers and streams in the capital city are at their normal levels and no flooding has occurred.
The town of Nuevo Paz southeast of the capital was struck by a tornado Sunday. An unknown number of homes were destroyed.
Civil Defense bulletins are urging those who have been evacuated to remain in government-run shelters or the homes of relatives until authorities determine that it is safe for them to return to their homes.
Cuba's ramshackle housing, much of it still not fully recovered from the 2005 hurricane season, is particularly vulnerable to the type of continuous heavy rainfall that Albert has dumped on the island, Siegelbaum reports.
The tropical depression that produced Alberto formed Saturday, nine days after the official start of the hurricane season, in the northwest Caribbean, which can produce typically weak storms that follow a similar track this time of year.
"They can also meander in the Gulf for awhile, and we've seen some dissipate before reaching any land areas," said hurricane specialist Richard Pasch. "There is no guarantee (Alberto) will make landfall."
Scientists say the 2006 season could produce as many as 16 named storms, six of them major hurricanes.
Last year's hurricane season was the most destructive on record. Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana and Mississippi and was blamed for more than 1,570 deaths among Louisiana residents alone.
It also was the busiest in 154 years of storm tracking, with a records 28 named storms and a record 15 hurricanes. Meteorologists used up their list of 21 proper names — beginning with Arlene and ending with Wilma — and had to use the Greek alphabet to name storms for the first time.
This year, however, meteorologists have said the Atlantic is not as warm as it was at this time in 2005, meaning potential storms would have less of the energy needed to develop into hurricanes.
Last year's first named storm was Tropical Storm Arlene, which formed June 9 and made landfall just west of Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle.