Ernesto Hits Florida Lacking Big Punch : kennyboy swallowing 20 valium pills !!!
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:13 a.m. ET
KEY LARGO, Fla. (AP) -- South Florida residents breathed a sigh of relief early Wednesday after Tropical Storm Ernesto lumbered ashore well below hurricane strength and caused little damage.
Ernesto lost much of its punch crossing eastern Cuba and made landfall late Tuesday on Plantation Key with 45 mph wind -- far from the 74 mph threshold for a hurricane that Ernesto briefly met Sunday.
Wednesday morning, its peak sustained wind was down to 40 mph, barely tropical storm strength. Some spots got drenching rain, but only about a half-inch had fallen at Miami International Airport.
''It was the little train that couldn't,'' said David Rudduck of the American Red Cross.
Phil and Priscilla Brooks, of West Palm Beach, watched the churning surf from a bench along the beach.
''Beautiful, just beautiful,'' said Phil Brooks, 67, while sipping coffee. ''I'm glad it didn't get as bad as they said it would, but it's such a beautiful thing to see now.''
State emergency response team chief David Halstead said initial reports indicated Ernesto was a relatively minor storm when it went through the Keys. But he cautioned that full damage assessments weren't likely to be completed until later in the day, when there could still be problems such as fallen power lines and road flooding.
Forecasters said Ernesto's sustained wind could soon fall below 39 mph, making it a tropical depression, but they warned that strong gusts could lash the state and as much as 10 inches of rain could fall in spots along Florida's Atlantic coast. Key Biscayne recorded a gust of 58 mph.
''I've seen much worse rainstorms in New York,'' transplanted New Yorker Brian Lima said as he nursed a beer at a bar on Key Largo.
Ernesto was forecast to move up the middle of Florida and move out to sea again off the northeast coast by early Thursday, before hitting the mainland again in Georgia or the Carolinas.
''How much strengthening occurs after Ernesto emerges into the Atlantic depends on how much of a cyclone is left,'' said senior hurricane specialist James Franklin.
A tropical storm warning remained in effect from Bonita Beach, on Florida's west coast, around the peninsula and Keys and up the entire eastern length of Florida to the Savannah River, on the Georgia-South Carolina line. A hurricane watch was in effect from the Savannah River northward to Cape Fear, N.C.
''The best-laid plans can be disrupted by Mother Nature, in the event this storm were to stall out over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and intensify,'' South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford warned.
Some people welcomed the possibility of a good soaking.
''The ground is dry, the streams are low and the reservoirs are down,'' said North Carolina forecaster Ryan Boyles.
Sanford said nearly 250 National Guardsmen were being mobilized to help direct traffic if evacuations were ordered and said contractors working on highway projects along evacuation routes would temporarily shut down operations. Florida had placed 500 National Guard members on alert.
At 8 a.m. EDT, the center of the storm was about 50 miles east-southeast of Naples and moving north near 8 mph.
The storm initially prompted NASA to start moving the space shuttle to an assembling building for protection, but NASA later reversed course and sent it back to the launch pad.
Accidents on rain-slickened expressways killed at least two people in Florida on Tuesday. Ernesto also killed at least two people in Haiti.
About 6,800 Florida Power & Light customers lost electricity at one point, but most power was quickly restored. More than 3 million customers had lost power after Hurricane Wilma last year.
Some embraced the weather as an opportunity. A squall preceding the storm brought out kite-surfers on Miami Beach until the wind became too strong.
In the laid-back Florida Keys, many residents took the storm in stride. At the Hurricane Grille in Marathon, TVs showed Ernesto approaching the Keys as Dean Carrigan enjoyed beer and a game of darts.
''It's definitely the Keys lifestyle that we're out here drinking and having a good time,'' Carrigan said. ''This doesn't seem like anything. It looks like more of a thunderstorm.''
''It's not even a hurricane,'' said Carol Allor. ''I'm sure there'll be a worse one later.''
Off Mexico's west coast, meanwhile, Hurricane John was a powerful Category 3 storm, with maximum sustained wind of 115 mph. The storm threatened to cause flooding and ruin vacations in some Pacific resorts, but it was not expected to directly hit land.
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