Hurricane 2006: Florida braces for season's first storm

At 4 p.m., shortly after Saturday’s rainstorms died down, Frank Frisina went to Naples Pier to fish, just as he does every day.

Frisina, 82, said he isn’t concerned about the tropical depression that formed Saturday in the Caribbean Sea and saw no reason to alter his routine.

“The only ones that concern me are when I know they’re going to be a Category 5,” Frisina said, referring to the most powerful category of storm. “Generally speaking, we go where they’re not going to hit.”

The depression that formed Saturday is the first of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season, which scientists predict could produce up to 16 named storms, six of them major hurricanes.

The depression is expected to become the year’s first named storm — Alberto — as it veers toward Florida, but isn’t expected to become a hurricane. Forecasters predict the area could get 6 to 10 inches of rain, however.

Last year’s hurricane season was the busiest and most destructive in recorded history. Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana and Mississippi and was blamed for more than 1,570 deaths in Louisiana alone.

According to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, the depression that formed Saturday had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph, just below the 39 mph threshold for a tropical storm. It is moving at about 6 mph toward the Florida coast.

Over the next three days, the system is expected to move through the Yucatan Channel into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, then toward Florida, where it could make landfall Monday or Tuesday somewhere between South Florida and the western tip of the Panhandle, forecasters said.

The National Hurricane Center’s Web site shows the system’s projected path heading into the northern peninsula north of Tampa.

The depression’s outer rainbands stretched Saturday to the southern tip of Florida, and heavy rain was forecast over the state’s Gulf Coast and the Florida Keys through Monday.

Sunday’s forecast for South Florida calls for rain, thunderstorms and breezy conditions. Meghan Danahey, a meteorologist with WBBH-TV NBC-2, said South Florida residents can expect weather like Saturday’s for the next few days.

“I think we’ve seen our last sunshine until Wednesday,” Danahey said. “We’re only going to get more and more moisture in here as the system moves into the Gulf.”

Danahey said the system could actually be good news for rain-deprived South Florida, which has received about 20 inches less rain this year than this time last year.

“We’re expecting 6 to 10 inches of rain by the time this thing is done,” Danahey said. “That’s really good news when you consider how dry we’ve been and the fires ... It will jump-start our rainy season.”

The rain could lessen drought conditions, said Gerry LaCavera, wildfire mitigation specialist for the state Division of Forestry.

The storm would help a lot if it brings rain to the region, but if the area just gets lightning, it spells trouble, LaCavera said.

The Division of Forestry is already responding to three to 10 lightning wildfires a day, LaCavera said.

South Florida residents shouldn’t be too concerned about this system, Danahey said, but should use it as a reminder to finish putting together hurricane preparedness kits and emergency plans for later in the hurricane season.

For Shanna Andler of Chicago, who was vacationing in Naples, news of the storm didn’t stop her and friends Kelly Powers and Erin Stemper from enjoying a Saturday at the beach. The women played Scrabble in the morning and had to cancel a boat trip, but they decided to go to the beach in the afternoon.

“It kind of stinks, but at the same time I thought it was nice today,” Andler, 26, said. “Yesterday was blistering hot and the water was like bath water.”

Up to 20 inches of rain was expected over the western half of Cuba, along with heavy rainfall over the Cayman Islands and the northeastern portion of the Yucatan Peninsula, forecasters said.

The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season set records for the number of named storms (28) and hurricanes (15). Forecasters used up their list of 21 proper names (beginning with Arlene and ending with Wilma) and had to use the Greek alphabet to name storms for the first time.

Last year, the first named storm of the season was Tropical Storm Arlene, which formed June 9, 2005, and later made landfall just west of Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle — the first of two tropical storms and four hurricanes to target Florida last year.

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Staff writers Nicholas P. Alajakis and Anne Marie Apollo and the Associated Press contributed to this report.