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Thousands flee approaching storm

The entire population of the Florida Keys island chain under evacuation orders

KEY WEST (Florida): Thousands of residents had been ordered to evacuate on Sunday and businesses and emergency officials prepared rescue and relief plans as forecasters predicted Hurricane Wilma would pick up speed ``like a rocket'' on a course toward Florida.

The southern half of Florida's peninsula was under a hurricane warning on Sunday in anticipation of Wilma, a Category 2 storm with 161 kmph sustained wind. Although still far from the State, Wilma's outer bands of rain had already caused street flooding in a South Florida suburb.

Time for action

Tropical storm-force wind was expected to begin lashing the State late on Sunday and meteorologists said the heart of the storm was expected to roar across the State on Monday. ``The time of preparing is rapidly moving into time of action as people are evacuating,'' Florida emergency management director Craig Fugate said.

Wilma had been joined by Tropical Storm Alpha, which formed on Saturday south of the Dominican Republic as the record 22nd named storm for the Atlantic season. It was the first time forecasters exhausted the regular list of names and had to turn to the Greek alphabet for labels in almost 60 years of naming storms. ``It's really going to take off like a rocket,'' he said. About 160,000 people in the State were under mandatory evacuation orders, including the entire population of the Florida Keys island chain, according to officials and census data. There was no way of knowing exactly how many actually left, but it appeared only about 20 per cent of the 78,000 Keys residents fled. Evacuation orders also covered barrier islands and coastal areas in Collier and Lee counties, such as Fort Myers Beach, Marco Island, Sanibel and parts of Naples.

AP

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