MIAMI — As Michelle, a dangerous late-season hurricane, chugged northward through the Caribbean, authorities Saturday ordered the lower Florida Keys evacuated of tourists and residents as a precaution.
A string of small, low-lying islands more than 50 miles long, stretching from Key West to Marathon, was ordered emptied of its population by local authorities, said Harold Joiner, manager at the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
"If law enforcement wants to push it, they could arrest," Joiner said from Tallahassee, Florida's capital. "But typically, they get the next of kin to do some persuading."
Joiner said the evacuation order, issued by Monroe County authorities, could affect 60,000 to 70,000 Keys residents. As many as 20,000 tourists and visitors were covered by a separate evacuation order issued earlier, Joiner said. Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency.
Michelle was a powerful Category 4 storm, on a scale of 5, with sustained winds of nearly 135 mph, and could get even stronger, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Saturday evening, the storm's eye was about 235 miles south-southwest of Havana.
Already Saturday afternoon, Key West, the southernmost point in the Florida Keys, was being buffeted by gusty blasts, and visitors were doing their best to leave before Michelle got too close.
"All the tourists are heading out and trying to find ways to get out of town," said Blake Ireland, the front-desk clerk at the 15-room La-Te-Da Hotel, where 12 people checked out during the day. "The airport's a mess, and there are no more rental cars."
"We just put someone in a taxi for Miami--a $400 fare," Ireland said.
The bulk of the evacuees were expected to drive northeast toward Miami on U.S. 1, known locally as the Overseas Highway, Joiner said. In the Miami area, permanent shelters are already in place for Keys residents who are forced to flee great storms.
In September 1998, Hurricane Georges forced the last large-scale evacuation of the Keys archipelago, the southernmost point in the continental United States. Before evacuation plans existed, a fearsome hurricane on Labor Day 1935 killed 408 people in the island chain.
Michelle's landfall in Cuba was expected sometime tonight, and residents of the Communist-ruled country lined up at gas stations and spent valuable U.S. dollars on storm provisions at hard-currency stores.
