Tropical Storm Fay dumped heavy rain across southern Florida on Tuesday after coming ashore near the city of Naples on the peninsula's south-west coast, the National Hurricane Centre in Miami reported, according to dpa. Fay was located near Lake Okeechobee at around 1900 GMT and was expected to move north before returning to the Atlantic Ocean near the northern coast of east Florida on Wednesday. The storm caused little damage in the state after failing to strengthen into a hurricane, but forecasters said it could again pick up steam after returning to the ocean before turning back toward the US coast. But the hurricane centre warned of possible tornadoes and flooding from as much as 38 centimetres of rain. No major damage was reported after the storm hit the Florida Keys islands on Monday, where 25,000 people had fled the storm and oil offshore platforms had been after evacuated. Many residents had boarded up their houses and stocked up on supplies. The storm had previously caused heavy floods and mudslides on the island of Hispaniola shared by Haiti and Dominican Republic. More than 50 people were reported dead as a result of the storm in those countries.
