Emergency managers and other officials in southwest Florida are breathing a collective sigh of relief – as Tropical Isaac moves away from the region.  At Five O’clock the National Hurricane Center dropped the Hurricane Warning that had stretched from Bonita Beach South – replacing it with a tropical storm warning.  Collier County Emergency Services Director Dan Summers says it’s a welcome outcome to what could have been a very destructive storm.

“We were really expected some intensification once s this storm reached the Florida Straights and we didn’t see that today,” he said.  “Some dry air came into the storm.”

Summers says power outages in Collier County have been few and sporadic.  He says the storm surge threat has diminished  as the storm has weakened and moved away.  

Summers also says preparing for Isaac was a good test run,  that all systems worked well  and should another storm threaten  Collier County is in a good position to respond.

Collier county government offices will be open tomorrow. Courts will be closed.   Public schools in Lee, Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry. Sarasota and Desoto Counties will be closed. 

Florida Gulf Coast University canceled classes Monday.  So did  Edison State College.

Some flights out of Southwest Florida International Airport have been canceled.

At 5:00 the center of Tropical Storm Isaac was passing just south of Key West with sustained winds of 60 miles an hour.  It’s moving  west north west at about 16 miles an hour.

Now forecasters are focusing on the Florida Panhandle, coastal Alabama, Mississippi – where Isaac could arrive later this week – possibly as a category 2