Late season storm curves towards Florida area
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from November 1988.
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The late-season Caribbean depression grew into the 11th tropical storm of the season off Mexico on Sunday morning, and forecasters expected it to reach hurricane strength as it headed into the Gulf of Mexico.
At 1300 GMT, Keith was centered about 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of Cancun, Mexico, heading north at 12 miles (19 kilometers) per hour.
The Mexican resort was buffeted by Hurricane Gilbert two months ago.
"Heavy showers and thunderstorms continue over western Cuba and may affect the lower Keys and southwest Florida later today and tonight," said National Weather Service forecaster Gil Clark.
But "the center of Keith is expected to remain over the south central Gulf of Mexico for the next day or two."
The government of Mexico issued a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch for the northern Yucatan Peninsula, and storm conditions were expected to spread over western Cuba on Monday.
Rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches (13 to 25 centimeters) were possible along the path of the storm, forecasters said.
People living in low-lying areas of Cancun were evacuated Sunday afternoon, Mexico's Excelsior news service said.
It was unknown how many left their homes for public shelters.
However, many homes badly damaged by Gilbert in September remained unoccupied. Excelsior said flood waters were 3 feet (one meter) deep in some areas. Tropical depressions become tropical storms once their top sustained winds reach 39 miles (63 kilometers) per hour, and tropical storms become hurricanes at 74 miles (119 kilometers) per hour. The system passed south of Jamaica as a depression late Friday and early Saturday, drenching Kingston with nearly 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain in 24 hours.
