Ernesto threatens South Florida with rain, floods

Tropical Storm Ernesto threatened to cause flooding with more than a foot of rain Tuesday as it began drenching the southern part of Florida, but the system surprised forecasters by failing to strengthen as it approached the state.

Ernesto, briefly a hurricane Sunday, lost much of its punch crossing mountainous eastern Cuba. Shortly after re-entering open water in the Florida Straits, Ernesto had 45-mph top sustained winds, and forecasters said there was only a remote possibility it would regain hurricane strength with winds of 74 mph or more.

?The storm has not been strengthening,? said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center. ?That window for it strengthening into a hurricane is definitely diminishing.?

Rain of up to 15 inches is considered the greatest threat. Police distributed thousands of sandbags in the low-lying Miami suburb of Sweetwater. Rusty Pfost, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said he expected streets and perhaps even homes to flood.

Tornadoes were also possible, forecasters said.

?People will let their guard down. They?re going to do foolish things and they?re going to get hurt. This storm is not over. It could be a flood event,? said Craig Fugate, the state?s emergency management director.

Gov. Jeb Bush, joined by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in Tallahassee, said the state was ready to respond with 500 National Guard members and another 500 state law enforcement officers.

?We?re prepared for this storm and working to make sure all Floridians get through this safely,? Bush said.

Tuesday was the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

?This does not look like a catastrophic event, but we always want to be ready,? said Chertoff, who attended Katrina anniversary events earlier in the day in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Ernesto was forecast to move up the middle of the state and exit on the northeast coast by early Thursday, moving into the Atlantic Ocean and potentially gaining hurricane status before hitting Georgia or the Carolinas.

The storm threat forced NASA to scrub its planned launch of the space shuttle Atlantis. The shuttle was initially moved toward an assembling building for protection, but NASA reversed course later when forecasters said winds would not be as strong as initially expected.