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MIAMI: Tropical Storm Fay sloshed through central Florida Tuesday with severe winds and drenching rains but sparing the area from more devastating hurricane fury as it slowly crossed toward the Atlantic.
Millions from Miami to St. Petersburg kept indoors as the storm knocked power out to some 93,000 people. All of Florida was under a state of emergency, although surfers braved the elements to ride the storm-driven swells.
Television footage showed houses with roofs torn off and heavy flooding in coastal areas.
Few injuries were reported, but a kite boarder testing the high winds and surf in Fort Lauderdale was carried by the strong gusts onto shore and hurled into a building, leaving him in serious condition.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) expected Fay, which claimed dozens of lives around the Caribbean over the weekend, to weaken while it was over land, although the storm could roar back to life if it heads out over the Atlantic, as some computer models predict it could.
The biggest concern now, officials said, was that the weather system could spawn tornadoes and severe flooding across the Sunshine State.
As much as 40 centimetres of rainfall could fall over parts of south and east-central Florida, the NHC said.
At 2100 GMT Fay's centre was about 150 kilometres southeast of the Kennedy Space Center.
The storm unexpectedly picked up strength somewhat after landfall, with winds now blowing around 100 kilometres per hour.
The storm was moving toward the northeast at about 13 kilometres per hour. It was expected to decrease in forward speed and turn to the north sometime on Wednesday, the NHC said.
"This track should bring Fay over water near the east coast of north Florida during the next 24 to 36 hours," the NHC said.
Although remaining under minimum hurricane wind speed (119 kilometers), Fay could pick up speed once it gets over the warm Atlantic waters off eastern Florida, prompting a hurricane watch to be issued in the are from Flagler Beach to Altamaha Sound, Georgia.
The NHS also forecast that it could reverse direction and head back to the west by Friday-Saturday, posing a threat to north-western Florida and southern Alabama.
In the Caribbean over the weekend, Fay left a trail of death and destruction, particularly in Haiti, where a truck carrying around 60 passengers plunged into a swollen river.
In Florida meanwhile, authorities ordered the evacuation of tourists and closed schools in the Florida Keys and counties to the north. In Key West, shelters were set up in case residents were also forced to abandon their homes and flights were cancelled.
- AFP/yb
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