Floridians stocking up as tropical storm looms

Tuesday, August 29, 2006 MIAMI (AP) — Florida residents rushed to fill their prescriptions and stood in long lines for gasoline, food and other supplies Monday as officials warned people not to wait for Tropical Storm Ernesto to become a hurricane again before taking precautions. Forecasters said Ernesto could grow back into a hurricane in the warm waters off Cuba and come ashore in South Florida as early as tonight, exactly one year after Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast. It would be the first hurricane to hit the United States this year. Katrina remembered Memories of Katrina and the seven hurricanes that have struck Florida since 2004 were fresh in the minds of many. "Make sure you have the supplies for the 72 hours after the storm," Gov. Jeb Bush warned people in Tallahassee, a day after declaring a state of emergency for all Florida. Pedro Ballesteros, 40, carried two new six-gallon gas tanks out of a Home Depot for his home generator. Forecasters issued a tropical storm warning Monday afternoon for all of South Florida's eastern coast, north to Vero Beach, as well as the Keys and the Everglades. A warning means tropical storm activity is expected within 24 hours. About 400 miles of the state's densely populated Atlantic coast were under a hurricane watch, issued when such conditions could occur within 36 hours. The status At 8 p.m. EDT, the fifth named storm of the hurricane season had top sustained winds of 40 mph, 1 mph above the minimum to be a tropical storm and down from 75 mph Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said. It was centered over Cuba, about 30 miles east of Camaguey, and about 324 miles southeast from Key West. It was moving west-northwest near 11 mph. Over the weekend, Ernesto became the first hurricane of the Atlantic season and lashed the Dominican Republic and Haiti. One person was reported killed along Haiti's southern coast. There were no immediate reports of any damage or injuries in Cuba. The government regularly undertakes mass evacuations before tropical storms and hurricanes. This time, Cubans moved cattle to higher ground, tourists were evacuated from hotels, and baseball games were rescheduled for earlier in the day in Havana. Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.