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Looking ahead at TS Fay
8/21/2008
By Andrew Gant, Florida Freedom Newspaper
Okaloosa emergency workers are on 'precautionary standby,' but hope for little rain
with Associated Press writers
As floodwaters from an abiding Tropical Storm Fay swamped central Florida, Okaloosa County stayed on its lowest alert level - monitoring a storm officials hope will hurry through Northwest Florida.
"With the current forecast, with the way it's laid out and everything, we don't plan on activating this weekend," said Emergency Management Coordinator Ken Wolfe, although he said the county's "precautionary standby" status Wednesday was subject to change later in the week.
Okaloosa was at the third level of its three-level monitoring alert system, which meant emergency responders did not plan to be on weekend duty unless called.
Forecasters say the weekend is when the rain will come.
The chance of thunderstorms near Fort Walton Beach will increase today through Saturday, according to the National Weather Service in Mobile, Ala. The highest chance comes Saturday and Sunday, when NWS meteorologists call for a 60 percent chance of rain with wind gusts hitting 30 to 35 mph.
That could amount to three to ten inches of rain, depending on the estimator. The National Hurricane Center has predicted more local rainfall than the NWS, Wolfe said.
Hundreds of central Florida homes were flooded Wednesday as nearly 25 inches of rain had fallen in the city of Melbourne.
NHC forecasters called Fay "meandering" and said the slow-motion storm would be remembered for the "torrential rains" along its track.
The rainfall in Okaloosa is unlikely to approach the figure in central Florida, Wolfe said.
"It's gonna roll through here... pretty much no more than a severe thunderstorm for us."
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