Florida tourists clear out as storm approaches

Thousands of tourists jammed U.S. Highway 1 yesterday after they were told to evacuate the lower Florida Keys as Tropical Storm Rita developed over the Bahamas and moved toward the vulnerable, low-lying island chain.

A hurricane warning was posted for the entire Florida Keys, which means hurricane conditions of winds of at least 74 mph are likely by late today.

In Tallahassee, Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency for Florida, which gives the state authority to oversee evacuations and activate the National Guard, among other powers.

Long-term forecasts show the system heading generally westward in the Gulf of Mexico toward Texas or Mexico later in the week, but such forecasts are subject to large errors. That means that areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina could potentially be in the storm's path.

Rita is the 17th-named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. That makes this season the fourth-busiest since record keeping began in 1851.

Derailed train was 60 mph over limit

A commuter train was going almost 60 mph above the speed limit just before it derailed, killing two people and injuring dozens of others, the acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday.

Mark Rosenker said the Metra train was traveling at 69 mph and should not have been going faster than 10 mph when it switched tracks at a crossover just before jumping the tracks Saturday. The speed information came from a preliminary reading of one of the train's three electronic-data recorders.

Investigators conducted a three-hour interview yesterday with the train's engineer. The 41-year-old man had been on the job for 45 days after completing Metra's six-month training program, which included at least some training along the route where the derailment occurred.

He also had worked for more than five years as a CSX freight-train engineer.

The double-decker commuter train was headed into Chicago from Joliet on Saturday morning with 185 passengers and four crew members when its locomotive and five rail cars jumped the tracks 5 miles south of downtown.

The train and the track had just been inspected Friday, said Judy Pardonnet, a spokeswoman for Metra, the commuter-rail system that serves the Chicago area.

Transportation officials also determined yesterday that train signals were working, Rosenker said.

Drive across tarmac ends in shooting

A man drove his truck across two active runways at the Palm Springs International Airport yesterday, broke a lock on a plane door and tried to run over an officer before he was arrested.

The man, dressed only in underwear and a shirt, crashed his truck in the yard of a nearby home and was shot several times by police.

But he still refused to surrender until a police dog subdued him, police spokesman Sgt. John Booth said.

The suspect, identified as Michael Broderick, was taken to Desert Regional Medical Center, where he was treated for gunshot wounds. His injuries were not life-threatening, Booth said.

Broderick was booked for investigation of attempting to kill an officer.

The man underwent drug tests, but the results would not be available for several weeks, Booth said.

Also

Michael Schiavo is co-writing a book with author Michael Hirsh to tell his side of the Terri Schiavo end-of-life case, which divided much of the country.

Compiled by The Associated Press