In the Keys, officials prepare for Fay

A mandatory evacuation order has been issued for visitors.

KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Florida Keys officials closed schools, opened shelters and urged visitors to leave as Tropical Storm Fay threatened to strengthen into a hurricane Sunday, but residents and some tourists seemed in no hurry to evacuate.

Traffic leaving Key West and the Lower Keys on Sunday afternoon was light but steady as the sky darkened with storm clouds and the National Weather Service issued watches and warnings.

“We’ve seen worse than this in Omaha,” said Diego Sainz, who was visiting from Nebraska with his wife and friends. They had intended to leave Sunday but couldn’t get a flight out.

Authorities said traffic was heavier in the Upper Keys, where the 110-mile, mostly two-lane highway that runs through the island chain meets the mainland. The Florida Highway Patrol sent in extra troopers to assist and tolls were suspended on parts of the northbound turnpike.

Fay could start pelting parts of the Keys and South Florida late today or early Tuesday as a strong tropical storm or minimal hurricane. Aside from wind damage, most of the islands sit at sea level and could face some limited flooding from Fay’s storm surge.

Officials in the Keys and elsewhere planned to open shelters and encouraged or ordered people who live in low-lying areas and on boats to evacuate. Schools in the Keys will be closed today and Tuesday.

Keys officials earlier Sunday had issued a mandatory evacuation order for visitors and asked those who had not yet arrived to postpone their trips. Officials said hotels and businesses won’t be forced to remove visitors, but they should use common sense.

Fay, the sixth storm of the 2008 Atlantic season, was slowing down Sunday night and moving erratically, but forecasters still expected it to strengthen slowly to a hurricane. Fay has already killed at least five people after battering Haiti and the Dominican Republic with weekend torrential rains and floods.

At 8 p.m., the storm’s center was located about 265 miles south-southeast of Key West. The storm was moving west-northwest about 10 mph. Maximum sustained winds were 50 mph.

Forecasters expected the storm to begin moving more to the northwest later Sunday night. Current models show the storm moving up the western coast of Florida, although forecasters still didn’t know exactly where it would make landfall.

Some Key West businesses began putting up hurricane shutters Sunday, but tourists and residents still strolled lazily through town, where the weather alternated from sunny to occasional downpours with light wind gusts.

Sainz and friend Ron Norgard, also of Omaha, sat outside the La Concha Hotel in Key West on rocking chairs, smoking cigarettes and waiting for their wives to return from shopping.

Sainz joked he was going to charge Florida Gov. Charlie Crist for the extra money his wife was spending because they couldn’t leave.

“Somebody’s gotta pay,” he quipped.

Crist declared a state of emergency Saturday as an emergency operations center opened in Tallahassee. He urged Floridians “to remain calm, remain vigilant” and said 9,000 Florida National Guard troops were available, but only 500 were on active duty Sunday.