Ernesto Weakens Over Florida

Willie Drye
for National Geographic News

August 30, 2006

Tropical storm Ernesto continued to confound forecasters as it came
ashore early this morning in the Florida Keys with much less intensity
than expected.

By midday the storm had weakened significantly to a tropical depression as it moved up the Florida peninsula.

Little damage was reported from Ernesto, which is expected to go back into the Atlantic Ocean tonight north of Cape Canaveral (map of Florida).

Two deaths were reported in separate wrecks in Florida, however, when cars skidded off rain-slick highways.

The weather system may strengthen some before it makes another landfall Thursday night.

Forecasters think Ernesto could regain tropical storm status with peak winds exceeding 40 miles (64 kilometers) an hour.

The storm's center is expected to come ashore somewhere around Charleston, South Carolina. Tropical storm watches have been issued from Savannah, Georgia, to Morehead City, North Carolina.

Downgrade

Ernesto began on August 24 as a tropical depression in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. The storm gathered enough strength to became the first hurricane of the Atlantic season three days later as it approached Haiti with winds of 75 miles (121 kilometers) an hour.

But the storm weakened when it crossed mountains in western Haiti and was disrupted again over the mountains of Cuba.

The storm reached the Florida Keys about 60 miles (97 kilometers) south-southwest of Miami around midnight on Wednesday, with top winds of about 45 miles (72 kilometers) an hour.

Forecasters initially thought Ernesto would regain strength as it crossed the warm waters of the Florida Straits between Cuba and Florida (read "Ernesto Defies Prediction as Storm Nears Florida" [August 2006]).

Based on this warning, emergency-management officials in the Keys ordered tourists and temporary residents to leave the low-lying islands on Sunday.

But "Ernesto never really got its act together after leaving Cuba," said meteorologist Todd Kimberlain at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

"There were a few different factors that caused that. It spent so much time over land." Upper level winds also may have impeded the storm's development, he said.

Meanwhile, sending the tourists out of the Keys meant that local businesses lost millions of U.S. dollars in income.

About 20,000 visitors "had their vacations shortened," said Andy Newman, a spokesperson for the Keys tourism industry.

But it could have been worse, he says.

"If we had to go through this, this was the time period to do it," Newman said. "This week is absolutely the slowest time period we have during the summer."

The islands were reopened to tourists today at noon, Newman says, and the upcoming Labor Day weekend should help offset losses.

Ernesto's eye passed near Florida's Lake Okeechobee, where engineers are concerned about the stability of the 140-mile-long (225-kilometer-long) Herbert Hoover Dike that protects the area from flooding.

But the lake's current water level is about 12 feet (3.6 meters) above sea level, which is considered safe.

Although Ernesto's rains will raise that level, officials don't think it will be high enough to strain the dike.

Willie Drye is author of Storm of the Century: the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, published by National Geographic.

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