The strong earthquake occurred just before 11:00 am local time. Nearly two thousand people have reported feeling shockwaves in parts of Florida, Georgia and Alabama.

The US Geological Survey,or USGS, reports very little seismic activity in Florida historically. There are six documented earthquakes including one felt on Captiva Island along the Gulf of Mexico in 1948 and two strong earthquakes in Cuba in 1880 that were felt in Key West.

Today’s earthquake in the Gulf did not trigger a tsunami. The U.S.G.S. reports historically, only one known tsunami has been recorded on the Atlantic Coast - generated by an earthquake off Newfoundland in 1929.

Where it was:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Maps/US10/22.32.-90.-80.php

Specifics on earthquake:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/usslav.php

Recent heavy rains have caused flooding on some Southwest Florida roadways. That has authorities warning about driving and using well-water in flooded areas. State Road 31 near the Charlotte/Lee County line is underwater. Glades County is still dealing with flooded roads and now officials are warning about flooding in Collier’s Golden Gate Estates. Many roads in that rural area are up to one foot under water. And homeowners like Marci Hofman are panicking as their property floods.

“We’ve got waterfront property. My main concern is because I have horses and I’m worried about them because we only have one spot that’s dry to feed them. And like I say our feed box, which is quite big, just floated by.”

Collier Emergency management spokeswoman Jaime Sarbaugh says authorities are doing what they can to drain the water.

“Some people have water in the swales in front of their homes and things like that. The canals are pretty high right now but we’ve been told by water management and south Florida water management district that their weirs are open and they are working to move that water.”

Motorists shouldn’t drive on roads that are underwater. Also, water can be contaminated from flooded septic tanks, backed-up sewers, animal feces or may contain hidden sharp objects.
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Flooding is so bad in Collier County’s Golden Gate Estates, some livestock owners are searching for dry land to house their horses. Marci Hofman is one of those folks. She says there is knee-high and higher water around her property and she says the water is still flowing. Hofman says this is the worst it’s ever been during her two years in the area.

“We’ve never had flooding. Oh we’d have a puddle here, a puddle there but not to the point I have to worry about my animals. And I walked out the front door and by the front door, because everything else is flooded around, I got snakes crawling all over. Our septic tank is in front of the house where we had to put the horses because it was the only place that was high enough so that we could feed them atleast.”

The Collier County Health Department advises residents with private wells to take precautions if their well head has been covered with standing water. A flooded well head means your water may contain disease-causing organisms and may not be safe to drink, according to Collier emergency management spokeswoman Jaime Sarbaugh.

“That water can be contaminated because of the flooding. They will be notified when the boil water has gone away. They need to wait until after the water recedes and they can test their water.”

Until flooding subsides residents should boil their water for one minute, disinfect it with 8 drops of plain bleach per gallon or use bottled water for drinking, brushing teeth, washing dishes, and washing areas of skin that have been cut or injured.
AFTER the standing water subsides, residents should disinfect their wells.

Tropical Storm Ernesto is history in Southwest Florida, but rainfall associated with system is still causing problems in Glades County. Precipitation flooded homes in the community of Palmdale. Area residents are advised to evacuate. The Muse Community Center has opened as a shelter. Angie Osceola is Glades County’s Director of Emergency Operations.

“Most of it is a lot of low lying areas and the rain we’ve gotten before this storm came along and the water is running but got no where to run to”

Fisheating Creek is also overflowing its banks and is expected to crest on Sunday. Palmdale is hamlet of about 300 people in Glades County. About 30 homes have been flooded. Floodwaters could rise through the weekend. Some roadways are also underwater. People are asked to avoid flooded roads and areas.

Tropical storm Ernesto turned out to be little more than a rainy day for most Floridians. Ernesto's fizzle illustrates the difficulty forecasters face predicting the intensity of tropical storms -- a science that lags far behind figuring out where a storm will go. State emergency management director Craig Fugate says he’s concerned that it’s often such a mystery to forecasters why hurricanes sometimes develop so quickly…

“That was never in the forecast for Ernesto, but much of the science is the same. Why do some storms develop when others don’t? Why do storms strengthen? Why do they strengthen rapidly? Why do they sometimes weaken rapidly?”

Technological advances have enabled forecasters to cut their error rate in half since 1990 for predicting where tropical systems will go.
National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield describes the process as a "jigsaw puzzle with a million pieces." Fugate says he hopes there’s more research funding to give forecasters better tools to predict storm intensity.

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Ernesto surprised forecasters by failing to strengthen before reaching the southern tip of Florida, where it delivered drenching rain but none of the heavy winds or damage that had been expected. State officials say their biggest concern in advance of Ernesto were the more than 30-thousand people in Florida still under blue tarps from past hurricanes. But they say even those people in most cases had no trouble weathering the storm. Craig Fugate is Florida’s Emergency Management Director.

“For those people who feel that this was an inconvenience, we understand. But would you rather have had the damages associated with a land-falling hurricane, versus being prepared and being spared the damage and misery from a storm?”

Fugate says most of the heaviest rain fell over the Everglades in Collier & Glades Counties. But even in those areas flooding was minor – and wind damage nearly non-existent.

Tropical Storm Ernesto surprised forecasters by failing to strengthen yesterday before reaching the southern tip of the state. The decaying system made landfall at 11:30 last night on Plantation Key with 45 mile-an-hour winds.

Only about half an inch of rain fell at Miami International Airport. One of the highest wind gusts recorded was 58 miles-an-hour in Key Biscayne.

It's expected to continue over Florida as a weak tropical storm. Its top sustained winds decreased to 40 miles-an-hour.

Forecasters say Ernesto could weaken to a tropical depression later today, but rainbands with strong, gusty winds will continue throughout the day.

The center is about 75 miles southwest of West Palm Beach moving north near eight miles-an-hour.

Motorists across South Florida have clogged gas stations Monday to fill up their vehicles in advance of Ernesto’s arrival. Governor Jeb Bush says he’s pleased people are preparing in advance. But he also says the state is in NO danger of running out of fuel. He says Florida’s ports have more than 295-million gallons of gasoline—the highest ever recorded in the state:

“There’s ample fuel. It’s getting out of the ports. The ports are still open. There’s not going to be a shortage so people don’t need to overreact. They just need to make sure they have enough fuel to take care of their families.”

State officials also warn residents to be on the lookout for price gouging. They say any suspected instances of being overcharged should be reported to authorities.

State meteorologist Ben Nelson says residents shouldn’t dwell on the storm’s projected track because weaker systems are more difficult to forecast.

“Don’t focus on that skinny black line, the track, again this is a weak tropical storm at the moment. Those are often much more difficult to forecast than some of the bigger storms we’ve had over the past couple of years – and it’s very important for folks not to get fixated on that skinny black line.”

Nelson says heavy rainfall will be the biggest threat – as Ernesto moves onshore sometime this afternoon. He says strong currents and tornadoes are also possible in the coming days throughout South Florida.

A hurricane watch continues for all the Florida Keys from Ocean Reef to the Dry Tortugas including Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon, Big Pine Key and Key West.

Monroe County Emergency Management says the National Hurricane Center forecast indicates Ernesto should not exceed Category 1 strength, if the tropical cyclone passes over the Keys late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning as forecasted. Keys tourism spokesman Andy Newman says that means things are quite calm.

“It seems with the last couple of forecasts that the tracking of the storm seems to be shifting to the east so perhaps we might get lucky here. But still people are taking it seriously because we are responding to a category one storm it means that the procedure dictate that there’s not going to be a need for any type of mandatory general resident evacuation.”

A visitor evacuation continues for all the Florida Keys. Those with immediate future travel plans to the Keys must postpone trips until the risk has passed.

The evacuation of special needs patients to the Monroe County shelter at Florida International University began at 6 a.m.

Mobile home and boat dwellers, as well as residents residing in low-lying areas prone to flooding, should leave. Monroe County schools are today.

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Forecasters from the National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch for the southern peninsula of Florida as Tropical Storm Ernesto grows closer today. Ernesto has maximum sustained winds of 50 miles-per-hour but forecasters cautioned that the storm could regain hurricane strength before its anticipated arrival today on Cuba's southeastern coast.

The watch was issued from Deerfield Beach near Boca Raton southward on the east coast and from Chokoloskee southward on the west coast. A hurricane watch is in effect for all of the Florida Keys. Keys tourism spokesman Andy Newman says this storm hasn't provided much warning time and has been eratic.

“It’s a strange thing how it’s tropical storm Ernesto, became a hurricane, then the mountains of Haiti really chewed it up and now it’s a tropical storm again and the forecasters are really puzzled about this storm and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.” :12

Visitors were ordered to leave the Keys yesterday and Governor Jeb Bush issued a state of emergency because of the possibility that Ernesto could threaten much of the state.

At 8 a-m, the storm had top sustained winds of 45 miles-an-hour, moving northwest at 12 miles-an-hour. It was centered 515 miles southeast from Key West.

Tropical Storm Chris has apparently lost its punch and continues to weaken in the Eastern Caribbean. The storm isn’t expected to reach hurricane status and will likely be downgraded to a tropical depression soon. Forecasters had thought the storm would reach Florida by this weekend as a hurricane. But now they say that’s not the case. National Hurricane Center forecaster Jaime Rhome says it’s not easy to calculate a storm’s intensity or path.

“Some storms seem to be just very, very resilient for whatever reason. You could impart strong shear across a storm and it just wouldn’t respond. Others you could just put a little bit of shear across it and it falls apart. So it’s a complicated interplay between the storm itself and the environment in which it’s embedded in.”

Rhome says forecasters have gotten better at predicting a storm’s likely path. But the intensity is much harder to zero in on.
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Forecasters say Tropical Storm Chris is no longer a threat to turn in to a hurricane and it will likely continue to weaken. The system is more than a thousand miles from the United States and meteorologists say it’s no easy task to predict a storm’s track or intensity.

Chris has vexed meteorologists with its slow track and yo-yo intensity over the past few days. The National Hurricane Center’s Jaime Rhome says predicting a storm’s strength is the most difficult aspect of forecasting. He says plotting the track is easier but still difficult. Rhome says as hurricane season continues, people might see rapidly changing forecasts.

“We want to be upfront with the public. We want the public to know that we’re not perfect. We don’t want to claim to be perfect and we want them to know that there’s still a lot of mysteries in hurricanes that science has yet to discover.”

Rhome says every storm responds differently to atmospheric conditions like wind shear, air currents and cold fronts. He says forecasters have to walk a tightrope by not downplaying a storm or crying wolf.

Southwest Floridians should take precautions to protect their outdoor plants and pets starting tonight. Temperatures are expected to drop well into the 30’s this weekend...with even colder wind chills.

National Weather Service Meteorologist – John McMichael – says tonight’s windy conditions will kick off a downright chilly weekend…

“We are going to have some wind tonight so we do have a wind chill advisory out – later tonight we could have temps in the 20-30 degree feel-like range towards morning, so people going out tonight should dress accordingly. Tomorrow night we’re looking for a radiational cooling night, which means the winds will be dropping off, we’ll have clear skies…and with the cold, dry air mass over us we’re expecting even colder temps – so by Sunday morning we could be looking at some freezing temps in the cold, outlying areas.”

There’s a freeze watch in effect tomorrow night and Sunday morning for Hendry & Glades Counties…as well as for inland areas of Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee & Collier Counties.

A spokesman for Florida Citrus Mutual says they don’t expect temperatures to stay cold enough for long enough to worry about freeze damage to crops.

Homeless shelters are opening tonight in Lee and Collier Counties.