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
ST. AUGUSTINE RECORD

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

Many St. Augustine 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 South Ponte Vedia Beach and low-lying areas of St. Augustine evacuated by noon today. Public schools also were ordered closed.

• Flagler County today ordered an evacuation of all areas east of Interstate 95, which includes parts of Crescent Beach and Anastasia Island.

• Neighboring Duval County asked for a voluntary evacuation of Jacksonville 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.

St. Augustine 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 39.2 north latitude and 80.0 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 Daytona, Florida and just north of Fernandina Beach, Florida. St. Augustine Beach is at the center of that area.

St. Augustine Beach, along with the rest of possible strike zone, is under a hurricane warning. The warning is in effect from Miami Beach north to Jacksonville on the East 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 from Key West to Fernedina Beach.

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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