KEY WEST, Fla. — Two years after a hurricane last lashed at Florida, many residents took a wait-and-see attitude Monday as a strengthening Tropical Storm Fay swept across the Florida Keys and bore down on the Gulf Coast.
While tourists caught the last flight out of town and headed out of the storm’s path, residents in the carefree Florida Keys put up hurricane shutters and checked their generators but didn’t do much more.
“We’re not worried about it. We’ve seen this movie before,” said 58-year-old Willie Dykes, who lives on a sailboat in Key West and was buying food, water and whiskey.
By early evening, locals and some tourists returned to the streets of Key West after the worst of the storm system passed the lower Keys, leaving the islands drenched but largely unscathed.
The sixth named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season was expected to be at or near hurricane strength before curling up the state’s western coast and hitting Florida’s mainland sometime today.
