Residents Await Decision
Day #5--Mid Morning:
Neighbors Evacuate

OLIVIA GROWS, HEADING OUR WAY
RESIDENTS AWAIT MAYOR'S EVACUATION DECISION

9:00 AM, Wed. Morning, October 4, 1995
TAMPA TRIBUNE

TAMPA- Hurricane Olivia has now grown to a category-four hurricane and is headed toward Florida's West Coast. Remaining Sanibel Island residents and tourists are waiting for the new mayor to choose between a forced evacuation and letting people decide for themselves.

Many Sanibel Island and Captiva residents are already evacuating on their own, fearing they will be stuck on the highway if they don't leave now.

Other nearby cities have already decided about evacuations:

• On Tuesday, officials ordered Sarasota to Englwood evacuated by noon today. Public schools also were ordered closed.

• Collier County today ordered an evacuation of all areas east of Interstate 75, which includes parts of Marco Island and Naples Park.

• Neighboring Sarasota County asked for a voluntary evacuation of Bradenton Beach.

The residents and tourists who remain want to ride out the storm. The residents hope they can care for their homes during the hurricane. The tourists want the experience of riding out the storm.

Sanibel officials are submitting urgent recommendations to the mayor to help him decide whether or not to make the evacuation mandatory.

At 9 a.m. EDT, the center of Olivia was near 25.8 north latitude and 83.5 west longitude.

The storm is now a category-four on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale. If the storm stays at this strength, its winds could tear roofs off and the storm surge could damage or destroy many coastal buildings.

Forecasters predict the storm will hit somewhere between Tampa, Florida and north of Key West, , Florida. Sanibel and Captiva are at the center of that area.

Sanibel, along with the rest of possible strike zone, is under a hurricane warning. The warning is in effect from Mobile east to Anclote Key on the West Coast of Florida.

A tropical storm warning extends south from the hurricane warning area, running south to Venice. A hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning extends west of Cedar Key to Key West.

In Mexico, at least 10 people died and 20 are missing after Olivia passed over the Yucatan peninsula. The storm caused flooding that drove more than 20,000 people from their homes in the states of Campeche and Tabasco .

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