Sandy whips Keys before moving north
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By KEVIN WADLOW
By SEAN KINNEY
Hurricane Sandy couldn't stop the homemade bikini contest Thursday at the Ocean Key House, one of several Fantasy Fest events in Key West.
Hurricane Sandy barely made anyone's radar last weekend but quickly brewed into an October storm that lashed the Florida Keys with its strong outer-band winds Thursday and early Friday.
Concern over school buses carrying students over bridges and roads exposed to gusty conditions closed Monroe County schools on Friday. Several local government offices closed, as well.
Pretenders in Paradise, a popular Fantasy Fest costume contest planned for Thursday night, was called off when strong northerly winds coming off the Gulf of Mexico raked the waterfront outdoor stage at the Pier House Resort in Key West.
Other Fantasy Fest activities this weekend were expected to go on as scheduled, fest director Linda O'Brien said.
A tropical-storm warning for boaters in waters of Florida Bay and Hawk Channel off the Upper Keys, along with a storm watch for Key Largo and Islamorada, was dropped at mid-day Friday.
"The worst of this storm in the Florida Keys occurred from around 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday," said forecaster Bill South from the National Weather Service in Key West.
"Several rain bands passed across the Keys well ahead of Sandy," South said. "It was pretty much a big squall."
Just about all areas of the Keys were tossed by wind gusts from the north-northeast reaching nearly 50 mph at some point, he said.
Drivers on the 18-Mile Stretch reported being drenched by waves breaking on the Barnes Sound shore, and white caps churned in Tavernier Creek. Tree limbs littered streets and campaign signs toppled but there were not reports of serious structural damage.
Hurricane Sandy formed as a storm in the Caribbean, north of Panama and south of Cuba, on Monday and headed north.
It reached hurricane strength but stayed on the eastern side of the Bahamas. It was never predicted to make a South Florida landfall.
Rains in Monroe County generally amounted to less than an inch, according to the Weather Service.
Hurricane Sandy served as reminder that hurricane season does not end when October begins, South said. Hurricane Wilma, one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, swamped the Keys with storm surge during this same October seven years ago.
"We do get quite a few October storms that tend to form in the central Caribbean," South said. "We always keep an eye on any storm in mid- to late October because they have a tendency to move northward."
As Hurricane Sandy skirted the eastern Florida coast, forecasters were warning residents of the Middle Atlantic, from Virginia to New England, to brace for a "historic" storm.
If the hurricane interacts with a south-moving cold front, as expected, it could strengthen into the one of the worst to come ashore in that area in a century.
Hurricane Grace, a 1991 storm depicted in the book and movie as "The Perfect Storm," was a similar event that stayed offshore.
Concern over school buses carrying students over bridges and roads exposed to gusty conditions closed Monroe County schools on Friday. Several local government offices closed, as well.
Pretenders in Paradise, a popular Fantasy Fest costume contest planned for Thursday night, was called off when strong northerly winds coming off the Gulf of Mexico raked the waterfront outdoor stage at the Pier House Resort in Key West.
Other Fantasy Fest activities this weekend were expected to go on as scheduled, fest director Linda O'Brien said.
A tropical-storm warning for boaters in waters of Florida Bay and Hawk Channel off the Upper Keys, along with a storm watch for Key Largo and Islamorada, was dropped at mid-day Friday.
"The worst of this storm in the Florida Keys occurred from around 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday," said forecaster Bill South from the National Weather Service in Key West.
"Several rain bands passed across the Keys well ahead of Sandy," South said. "It was pretty much a big squall."
Just about all areas of the Keys were tossed by wind gusts from the north-northeast reaching nearly 50 mph at some point, he said.
Drivers on the 18-Mile Stretch reported being drenched by waves breaking on the Barnes Sound shore, and white caps churned in Tavernier Creek. Tree limbs littered streets and campaign signs toppled but there were not reports of serious structural damage.
Hurricane Sandy formed as a storm in the Caribbean, north of Panama and south of Cuba, on Monday and headed north.
It reached hurricane strength but stayed on the eastern side of the Bahamas. It was never predicted to make a South Florida landfall.
Rains in Monroe County generally amounted to less than an inch, according to the Weather Service.
Hurricane Sandy served as reminder that hurricane season does not end when October begins, South said. Hurricane Wilma, one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, swamped the Keys with storm surge during this same October seven years ago.
"We do get quite a few October storms that tend to form in the central Caribbean," South said. "We always keep an eye on any storm in mid- to late October because they have a tendency to move northward."
As Hurricane Sandy skirted the eastern Florida coast, forecasters were warning residents of the Middle Atlantic, from Virginia to New England, to brace for a "historic" storm.
If the hurricane interacts with a south-moving cold front, as expected, it could strengthen into the one of the worst to come ashore in that area in a century.
Hurricane Grace, a 1991 storm depicted in the book and movie as "The Perfect Storm," was a similar event that stayed offshore.
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