Fay, the sixth tropical storm of the 2008 hurricane season, is expected to become a hurricane as it passes through western Cuba. Having recently moved to the upper Keys, we are calmly keeping an eye on the latest developments. Hurricanes are nothing new us as we have lived in this state before Andrew in ‘92 and have lived along the east coast our entire lives.
As of Saturday afternoon on August 16th, Fay was located between Haiti and Cuba, moving westward. The storm was centered about 80 kilometers south-southeast of Guantanamo, Cuba, with winds of 45 mph with higher gusts.
Long-range forecasts show the storm reaching the Florida Keys late Monday before heading into the southeastern United States. However, as we all know the erratic nature of hurricane movement, long-range forecasts are no more accurate than the flip of a coin.
Sunday, August 17th……As of 11:50 p.m. the forecast hasn’t changed much. A mandatory evacuation of tourists was ordered Sunday morning at 8 a.m…….could this be a case of premature evacuation?
As we did a few years ago during Rita, we decided to spend the day in Key West. While driving down, we saw the northbound bumper-to-bumper traffic from those heeding the warnings to get out early. We felt sorry for the hard working employees and vendors in Key West, who were left standing around, looking bored and lost.
This is the slow season anyway, so most of the people who stayed in Key West were left wondering, what was the rush to evacuate?
The weather was fine all day, overcast with a few sprinkes here and there, which made for an enjoyable afternoon of bar-hopping and shopping without being beaten down by the usual August heat.
Monday, August 18th…..About noon…..a little windy and some light rain here in the Islamorada area…nothing much to get excited about. Here’s a great link to check out for those of you who like to monitor these things:
http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200806_5day.html#a_topad
Shortly before 4:00 p.m. the eye passed over Key West…..still a tropical storm, it is not very impressive so far - just some wind and rain, something all of us here are used to, but the media continues to try and make something out of it.
No worries here.
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