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
PALM BEACH DAILY NEWS

PALM BEACH- Hurricane Olivia has now grown to a category-four hurricane and is headed toward the Palm Beach area. Remaining Palm Beach residents and tourists are waiting for the new mayor to choose between a forced evacuation and letting people decide for themselves.

Many Palm Beach 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 Delray Beach and low-lying areas of Boynton Beach evacuated by noon today. Public schools also were ordered closed.

• Broward County today ordered an evacuation of all areas east of U.S. Highway 27, which includes parts of Pompano Beach and Ft. Lauderdale.

• Neighboring Martin County asked for a voluntary evacuation of Jupiter Island.

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.

Palm Beach 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 26.2 north latitude and 79.4 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 Miami, Florida and just north of Ft. Pierce, Florida. Palm Beach and West Palm Beach are at the center of that area.

Palm Beach, along with the rest of possible strike zone, is under a hurricane warning. The warning is in effect from Key West to Daytona Beach on the East Coast of Florida.

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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