Strengthening Wilma Speeds Toward Florida

"I cannot emphasize enough to the folks that live in the Florida Keys: A hurricane is coming," Gov. Jeb Bush told state residents Sunday afternoon.

The entire southern Florida peninsula has been under a hurricane warning since Saturday, with an estimated 160,000 residents told to evacuate, but many in the low-lying Keys island chain stayed.

Fewer than 10 percent of the Keys' 78,000 residents evacuated, Monroe County Sheriff Richard Roth said.

"I'm disappointed, but I understand it," Roth said. "They're tired of leaving because of the limited damage they sustained during the last three hurricanes."

Wilma was Florida's eighth hurricane since August 2004 and the fourth evacuation of the Keys this year.

But Wilma had already proved its damaging potential as it battered the Mexican coastline with howling winds and torrential rains, killing at least three people. Thirteen others died in Jamaica and Haiti, and four bodies were found off Cozumel, though it wasn't clear if they were killed by the storm.

In Florida, the National Guard was on alert, and state and federal officials had trucks of ice and food ready to deploy. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was poised to send in dozens of military helicopters and 13.2 million ready-to-eat meals if needed.

Gov. Bush also wrote his brother, President Bush, asking that Florida be granted a major disaster declaration for 14 counties. Many of the areas bracing for Wilma were hit by hurricanes in the past two years.

At 2 a.m. EDT on Monday, Wilma was centered about 70 miles west-northwest of Key West, 95 miles southwest of Naples and moving northeast at about 18 mph. Sustained winds of 67 mph, with gusts of 75 mph, were measured in Key West.

It was markedly different than conditions Sunday morning in the Keys, when sunshine beckoned boaters onto the water and many residents went about their normal routines.

"We were born and raised with storms, so we never leave," Ann Ferguson said from her front porch in Key West. "What happens, happens. If you believe in the Lord, you don't have no fear."

Some 100 Key West parishioners attended Mass at a Catholic church where a grotto built in the 1920s is said to provide protection from dangerous storms. Ray Price took his usual stroll down Duval Street to check out the ocean.

"Another day in paradise," Price said.

Some people shared that attitude on the mainland. At a park for recreational vehicles in Fort Myers Beach, Leonard Hasbrouck stood bare-chested as a fire truck rolled by blaring a warning.

"Mandatory evacuation," a firefighter shouted into a loudspeaker. "You are hereby ordered to leave your residence by