July 8, 2005
By Ken Kaye & Mark Hollis
Sun-Sentinel Staff Writers

Photo: Eloge Larame 63, and his granddaughters take shelter in a church during a massive flood in Les Cayes, Haiti, about 175 miles from Port-au-Prince on Thursday, July 7. Ten-foot waves crashed to shore nearby and hundreds of islanders fled flooded homes for shelters as Hurricane Dennis lashed Caribbean coastlines with winds whipped up to 115 mph. The first hurricane of the season claimed its first victim in Haiti.

With its projected path nudging closer to Florida, Hurricane Dennis spun into a dangerous Category 4 monster on Thursday night, prompting the state to go on high alert and the Keys to evacuate tourists and residents.

In bruising Jamaica on Thursday and aiming toward western Cuba, the system already is taking a course eerily similar to that of Hurricane Ivan, which ultimately hammered Pensacola as a Category 3.

Packing 135 mph winds, Dennis now appears headed for the same destination, with possibly the same intensity. But the storm could do a lot of damage to other parts of the state, officials warned.

"If you're on the east coast of Florida, you need to be monitoring," he said. "If you're on the west coast, you need to be ready," said Craig Fugate, the state's emergency management director.

At 8 a.m. EDT, Dennis' eye was about 230 miles southeast of Havana, or roughly 285 miles south-southeast of Key West. It was moving northwest at about 12 mph. At 8 a.m. EDT, Dennis was centered near latitude 20.9 north, longitude 79.5.

Hurricane-force winds extended up to 50 miles from the center and tropical storm-force winds stretched up to 140 miles out, so the Keys could be battered by Friday evening.

Forecasters said the storm could drop 4 to 8 inches of rain Friday over the extreme end of southern Florida. A storm surge of 3 to 6 feet was possible in the lower Keys.

Dennis had top sustained winds of 135 mph -- making it an ``extremely dangerous'' Category 4 hurricane.

``Over the next 12 hours before even reaching (Cuba's) coast, it could intensify further,'' said Lt. Dave Roberts, a Navy meteorologist.

A hurricane warning was issued for the lower Keys, including Key West. A hurricane watch was in effect for the middle and upper Keys, including Key Largo. The last time Key West was hit by a major hurricane was 1948 -- a time when President Truman had his Little White House on the island city.

A tropical storm warning was posted for southwestern Florida south of Bonita Beach, near Naples, and along the southeastern coast south of Golden Beach in northern Miami-Dade County. A tropical storm watch was issued from Bonita Beach north to Longboat Key, just south of Tampa Bay.

Photo: Shopppers make last-minute purchases at a supermarket in preparation for the arrival of Tropical Storm Dennis, Wednesday, July 6, 2005, in Kingston, Jamaica. Some rural Jamaicans were cut off by floodwaters hours before the storm was to pass, and authorities planned to fly over the affected southeast area in a helicopter to search for stranded islanders. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)

Around 6:30 a.m. Friday, the National Weather Service in Miami issued a flood watch for South Florida that will remain in effect until sometime Sunday morning.

In Tallahassee, Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency, putting federal and state emergency plans in motion.

Monroe County officials, bracing for Dennis' core to pass within 60 miles of Key West early Saturday, ordered everyone west of the Seven Mile Bridge to flee. Tolls have been suspended on Florida's Turnpike northbound from Florida City to the University Drive exit in Miramar and on westbound Alligator Alley between Fort Lauderdale and Naples.

In Key West, store owners boarded up windows as motorists waited in line at gas stations and tourists abruptly ended their vacations.

``This is my wedding night, and I'll be on a bus,'' said Sue Theroux, 42, of Point Pleasant, N.J., as she and her groom, Tom Theroux, waited in Key West for a Greyhound bus late Thursday. They had planned to marry on Saturday, but hastily held the ceremony Thursday after receiving the evacuation order.

Friday morning, winds were still breezy in Key West, but Dennis was expected to start delivering heavier winds, rain and storm surge later in the day. Key West's streets were calmer than usual, the result of an evacuation order issued Thursday.

Barbara Crespo, a real estate agent and lifelong Key West resident, was one of those who decided to stay behind.

``There's not a whole lot you can do when you live in paradise,'' the 49-year-old said Friday as she rode bikes with her husband.

In Cuba, officials ordered thousands of residents to evacuate low-lying and coastal areas. In South Florida, thousands of Cuban-Americans were watching the path closely.

"We all have family there," said Alfredo Mesa, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation. "We are concerned about the safety and welfare of all Cubans on the island."

Nine Florida International University honors students and a professor weathered the storm in a marine laboratory in Jamaica, said Honors College spokeswoman Elizabeth Williams. The lab is stocked with water, food and generators, she said.

Dennis is expected to emerge in the Gulf of Mexico early on Saturday and then aim at the north Gulf Coast .

For Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, the storm's close passage was expected to generate a long breezy and rainy weekend, starting today.

However, because the system could approach more closely than anticipated, the region may see heavy downpours, possibly 3 to 5 inches, and gusts of up to 40 mph, said meteorologist Jim Lushine of the National Weather Service in Miami.

Photo: A line of cars travel out of the Florida Keys Thursday in advance of Hurricane Dennis. (AP/Wilfredo Lee)

The heaviest rains would arrive tonight and last through Saturday morning, he said.

"We're going to be on the edge, but it still looks like just a breezy, wet day on Friday and Saturday, and maybe getting better on Sunday," Lushine said.

Key West could see hurricane-force winds as well as up to 10 inches of rain, forecasters said. Yet, the Keys should be spared the storm's full fury because Dennis was expected to weaken as it passes over western Cuba.

Pensacola residents feared another Ivan, which left much of the western Panhandle city in ruins last September. Dennis was forecast arrive by Sunday afternoon.

The Rev. Russell Levenson of Christ Episcopal Church, which is still being repaired from last year's storm, talked about Dennis at a service Wednesday.

"One of the things that we prayed for was that Dennis would dissipate, and if it didn't was that it wouldn't come with the force [of Ivan]," Levenson said. "It brings up all the anxieties again."

Forecasters cautioned Dennis could bring squally weather, flooding and even tornadoes for most of the state, prompting many residents along the Gulf Coast to board up homes on Thursday.

The Panhandle could see a storm surge of 5 feet or more, which might require tricky evacuations, officials said. Roads and bridges near Pensacola still are damaged from Ivan, including the Interstate 10 bridge over Escambia Bay.

Federal officials have already begun moving water, power generators and other supplies toward Florida and were planning to open distribution centers.

Although the hurricane season's peak is in mid-September, Florida already has been nicked by tropical storms Arlene and Cindy.

"Reality in Florida -- we have a hurricane problem," said Fugate, the state emergency management director. "If you didn't know it from last year and you haven't got it from these four tropical storms, I don't know what it's gonna take."

Staff Writers Vanessa Bauzá, Madeline Baró Diaz, Michael Turnbell and Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report, which was supplemented with information from The Associated Press.

Ken Kaye can be reached at kkaye@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7911.

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