Wilma 'Significant Threat' To Keys

Gathering strength at a fierce pace, Hurricane Wilma grew into a Category 5 monster storm early Wednesday with 175 mph winds. Forecasters warned the storm was "extremely dangerous" and said a key reading of its pressure was the lowest ever recorded in the Atlantic basin: 882 millibars.

It's "the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin, stronger than Gilbert" in 1988, National Hurricane Center forecaster Jennifer Pralgo told CBS Radio News.

Lower pressure translates into higher wind speed.

"If this were the only hurricane of the season, this would be the event of the year," said Pralgo's boss, center director Max Mayfield.

Wilma was dumping rain on Central America and Mexico, and forecasters warned of a "significant threat" to Florida by the weekend. Local officials have ordered visitors out of the Florida Keys starting at noon Wednesday, the first U.S. evacuations caused by the storm.

"People are starting to think about evacuating, I'm sure," Cindy Thompson of the Margaritaville Café told CBS Radio News.

The Keys will experience a significant storm surge and increased waves, said the hurricane center.

"People are definitely taking hurricanes much more serious since Katrina and seeing the catastrophic conditions and devastation following that hurricane," said Key West Chief of Police Bill Mauldin.

"We do expect Wilma to make landfall somewhere in the Florida peninsula, possibly on Saturday into Sunday, as a Category 3 hurricane," Pralgo said.

It's lousy timing, says Thompson.

"We've got one of the biggest weekends of the year coming up. Fantasy Fest Week starts this Sunday, and it's going to throw really kind of throw a problem into whole thing," she said. Fantasy Fest is described as one of the biggest parties of the year and "Halloween turned on its ear."

The storm gathered force rapidly over the last day. It was only Tuesday morning that Wilma grew from a tropical storm into a weak hurricane.

"If someone were to ask me how the season could get much worse, the answer would be about the only way that would happen is to have a hurricane impact New England," said Mayfield — and it could happen with Wilma: "We have some of the computer projections now that show Wilma after day four turning a little more towards the north, and that could cause an impact to New England."

At 11 a.m. EDT, the hurricane's center was about 325 miles southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, with maximum sustained winds near 175 mph. Wilma was moving toward the west-northwest at about 7 mph, and was expected to turn to the northwest over the next 24 hours.

"This is going to be with us for another five or six days," said Mayfield.

Jamaica, Cuba, Nicaragua and Honduras were getting heavy rain from the storm, though it wasn't likely to make landfall in any of those countries. Forecasts showed it would likely turn toward the narrow Yucatan Channel between Cuba and Mexico's Cancun region — then move into the storm-weary Gulf.

With heavy rain, high winds, and rough seas already pounding coastal areas, flood-prone Honduras warned that Wilma posed "an imminent threat to life and property" and closed two seaports on its Caribbean coast. Neighboring Nicaragua also declared an alert. Authorities in the Cayman Islands had earlier called an alert.

Honduras and its neighbors already are recovering from flooding and mudslides caused earlier this month from storms related to Hurricane Stan. At least 796 people were killed, most of them in Guatemala, with many more still missing.
Cuba issued a hurricane watch for the western end of the island from Matanzas to Pioneer del Rio, as well as the Isle of Youth. Mexico issued a hurricane watch for nearly all of its Caribbean coast from Punta Gruesa to Cabo Catoche, an area that includes the resort of Cancun.

Wilma already had been blamed for one death in Jamaica as a tropical depression Sunday. It has flooded several low-lying communities and triggered mudslides that blocked roads and damaged several homes, said Barbara Carby, head of Jamaica's emergency management office. She said that some 250 people were in shelters throughout the island.

Although the storm was not expected to approach Florida until the weekend, some residents began buying water, canned food and other emergency supplies early. Many said they take every storm seriously now, after witnessing the devastation from a succession of hurricanes that have ravaged the southern United States.

"People have learned their lesson and know better how to prepare. We're not waiting until the last minute any more," said Andrea Yerger, 48, of Port Charlotte, Florida. She was buying material to protect her house, which had to be gutted because of extensive damage from Hurricane Charley last year.

So was the Days Inn in Punta Gorda, where Susan is the overnight desk clerk.

"We've been open about three weeks now. We were down for 14 months. Everything's brand new in here. They had to gut everything out after Hurricane Charley" last year, the woman, who asked that her last name not be used, told CBS Radio News.

Wilma's track could take it near Punta Gorda on Florida's southwestern Gulf Coast and other areas in the state hit by Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm, in August 2004.

"Kind of scary. I'm not ready for it," sighed Susan. "Sometimes it makes you wonder if you should just pack up and leave, and stay gone."

Florida has seen seven hurricanes hit or pass close by since August 2004, causing more than $20 billion in estimated damage and killing nearly 150 people.

In the Cayman Islands, authorities urged businesses to close early Tuesday to give employees time to prepare for the storm. Schools were ordered to close on Wednesday.

In Mexico, the MTV Latin America Video Music Awards ceremony, originally scheduled to be held Thursday at a seaside park south of Cancun, were moved up one day to avoid possible effects from Wilma.