force winds and while there have been evacuations over the last 14 months and there's not been a hit, perhaps people are saying 'I'm going to hunker down.' They shouldn't do that." At 2 p.m. (1800 GMT), the center of Wilma was about 240 miles (384 km) west-southwest of Key West and was moving toward the northeast at 12 mph (19 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. It was accelerating and expected to hit the southwest Florida coast around dawn on Monday. It was a Category 2 hurricane on the five-stage Saffir-Simpson scale, and forecasters said it could strengthen as it moved over warm Gulf waters. Wilma could push a storm surge of 9 feet to 15 feet (2.7-4.6 metres) above normal tides onto the southwest Florida coast. That would exceed the surge of last year's Hurricane Charley, then the second costliest hurricane in U.S. history with more than $15 billion in damage. The storm was expected to cross Florida and hit the state's most populous area between Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach, which is home to about 5 million people. Shelters were opened and residents of mobile homes and low-lying areas were told to move. --More 2318 Local Time 2018 GMT
