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closeNo hurricane, and no Carolinas threat.
Tropical Storm Fay lumbered ashore this morning in southwest Florida, never gaining hurricane strength but threatening the Sunshine State with flooding rains as it moves slowly northward over the next few days.
And meteorologists say this morning they are gaining confidence that Fay's rainfall might never reach the western Carolinas, where the tropical storm had been seen as an answer to the region's drought problems.
Instead, the latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center predicts Fay will stagger slowly across Florida this week, then bend sharply to the west and cross southern Georgia and Alabama this weekend.
The net result for the Charlotte metro region: Little chance of rain.
"There is still a chance that some of Fay's remnants eventually will be picked up and carried into our area, but this forecast certainly keeps the bulk of the precipitation to the south of us," said John Tomko, of the National Weather Service office in Greer, S.C.
Fay is a storm that has shown an affinity for land. Throughout its existence, the system has spent much of its time crossing land masses -- the Dominican Republic and Haiti, then Cuba, and finally Florida. With little time over open water, the storm never had a chance to intensify.
The tropical storm, carrying top sustained winds of 60 mph, made landfall about 5 a.m. at Cape Romano, just south of Naples, Fla. That is the same location where Category 3 Hurricane Wilma made landfall in 2005.
Fay brought soaking rains and gusty winds -- but nothing like the destruction seen in the region four years ago, when powerful but compact Hurricane Charley roared into the Punta Gorda-Port Charlotte area.
Streets were largely deserted in the early morning hours in Naples, where police had a curfew in place. Rain swept across desolate streets that were littered with palm fronds and other minor debris, and there was street flooding in spots but no immediate reports of storm surge damage.
The National Hurricane Center had predicted Fay would reach hurricane status -- 75 mph sustained winds -- shortly before reaching land. There were signs that the storm was strengthening, but it veered into the coast before growing more powerful.
It never spent enough time over open water, forecasters say.
Many businesses in southwest Florida never set up storm shutters or other window protection. And with no major Florida hurricanes in the past two years, officials were worried about complacency and urged people across Florida to take the situation seriously. But no storm-related deaths or injuries have been reported.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said this morning that he believes Florida residents will pay heed to the storm.
"Florida residents are wise to the danger of these storms," Crist told CBS News. "We are concerned about the possibility of serious flooding over the next few days."
Scattered power outages were reported early Tuesday including 5,800 customers on upscale Marco Island, according to Collier County officials. They also said 148 people spent the night in storm shelters.
After crossing the Florida Keys without causing major damage Monday, Fay lumbered ashore about 5 a.m. Tuesday at Cape Romano, just south of Naples, with sustained winds of about 60 mph. That's well below hurricane threshold of 74 mph. Cape Romano is the same spot where Hurricane Wilma, a Category 3 storm, made landfall in October 2005.
No major problems have been reported this morning farther to the north, in the heavily populated Tampa-St. Petersburg area.
Earlier predictions had called for Fay's remnants to move northward, crossing the Carolinas on Thursday and Friday. But the latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center calls for Fay to chug across Florida this week, not even reaching the Jacksonville area until Thursday.
And between Thursday and Saturday, the storm's remnants are predicted to move only about 150 miles to the west -- from the Jacksonville area westward into southern Georgia.
Fay's heavy rains have been eagerly anticipated by many people in the drought-stricken Carolinas. Rainfall in Charlotte this year is almost six inches below normal, and the precipitation deficit is even greater in the western Carolinas.
Now that appears very unlikely.
Instead, forecasters at the National Weather Service offices in the Carolinas say they're expecting a dry, hot week.
Fay, the sixth named storm of the 2008 Atlantic season, left at least five people dead in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In Haiti, a bus overturned while trying to drive across a river surging with rain, creating fears that up to 30 people were dead. U.N. police spokesman Fred Blaise said later that 41 people escaped, but peacekeepers saw the bodies of two infants who drowned in the Riviere Glace.
But Florida residents never seemed terribly concerned.
Colleen Volk, 52, of Estero, Fla., said Fay's winds paled in comparison with much-stronger Hurricane Charley in 2004 and Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
“I went through Charley,” Volk told the Fort Myers News-Press. “I'm not even putting shutters up for this one.”
Marathon Home Depot assistant manager Denis Lee said it seemed like a normal Monday despite the approaching storm.
“Everybody seems to be acting like this is a non-event,” Lee said.
The Associated Press and the Fort Myers News-Press contributed.
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