Florida Buys Time as Wilma Slows

From Key West, the Keynoter says:

Monroe County emergency management officials have revised their call for a mandatory evacuation due to Hurricane Wilma based upon the storm slowing in the southwestern Caribbean.

The mandatory resident evacuation is now planned for Friday, not Thursday as it had been. Evacuation of tourists and non-residents began Wednesday and continues.

As of the 8 a.m. Thursday advisory from the National Hurricane Center, Wilma was 175 miles southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, or at 18.3 north latitude, 85.2 west longitude. It was moving west-northwest at 7 mph and models continued to show a likely turn to the northeast and South Florida, likely Saturday or Sunday.

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