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| January 7, 2009 |
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No hurricane, but still flooding dangerHURRICANE RESOURCESDisaster Supplies Kit List National Hurricane Center Florida Catholic Conference FEMA NOAA ORLANDO | Tropical Storm Fay reached Florida a little sooner and with less force than forecast, prompting prayers of thanksgiving from Key West and the state’s southwest coast. “The Blessed Mother was good to us again,” Deacon Peter Batty of St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish in Key West said Tuesday morning Aug. 19 by telephone to the Florida Catholic’s state headquarters in Orlando. The parish had boarded up its 100–year–old stone church building Sunday, expecting the storm to pummel the island late Monday evening. The storm moved through around 3 p.m. Monday with lots of rain but winds shy of those predicted. According to media reports, residents and tourists were walking on the beach by 5 p.m. The storm regained a little strength over water, and had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph when it made landfall again, shortly before 5 a.m. Tuesday at Cape Romano, about 55 miles south of Fort Myers. Forecasters had said it was likely the winds would reach 74 mph or higher, and that Fay would make landfall around 8 a.m. as a category 1 hurricane. The storm proceeded northeast through the day on Tuesday, bringing rain and winds that stretched across the Florida peninsula and spawning at least one tornado, in the Diocese of Palm Beach city of Wellington. “No major damage (is expected) around the state from wind, but flooding will cause most of the damage,” said Deacon Marcus Hepburn, emergency management specialist for the Florida Catholic Conference. Around noon Tuesday he said the latest update from state meteorologists was that the steering currents have weakened for Tropical Storm Fay. “That will mean that Fay will either stall over central Florida or meander. Either way, it means a lot of rain and flooding,” Deacon Hepburn said. People need to be aware that 18 inches of water will float your car or SUV. Be careful and don’t drive into or through water when you are not absolutely sure how deep it is.” As residents in much of south and central Florida waited to see what Fay would bring to them, for Key Westers, the storm was already a memory of “a nonevent,” in Deacon Batty’s estimation. St. Mary’s 7 a.m. prayer group and 7:30 a.m. Mass went on as scheduled, and no one had harrowing stories to tell. “Everything was just absolutely fine. People are just sort of cleaning up and sweeping up and getting things organized,” Deacon Batty said.
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