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
MIAMI HERALD
ISLAMORADA- Hurricane Olivia has now grown to a
category-four hurricane and is headed toward the Florida Keys. Remaining Florida Keys
residents and tourists are waiting for the new mayor to choose between a forced
evacuation and letting people decide for themselves.
Many Florida Keys
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 Key West and
low-lying areas of Florida
City evacuated by
noon today. Public schools also were ordered closed.
- Collier County
today ordered an evacuation of all areas south of U.S. Highway 41, which
includes parts of Marco Island and the Keys.
- Neighboring
Dade County
asked for a voluntary evacuation of Biscayne National Park Area.
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.
Islamorada officialsare 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 83.0 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 Marco, Island
and the,
Keys. Islamorada
Pensacola is at the center of that area.
The Keys, along with the rest of possible strike zone, are
under a hurricane warning. The warning is in effect from Tampa to Cuba
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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