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NAPLES — Though 90 mph winds are nothing to scoff at, when Tropical Storm Fay reaches Southwest Florida Monday night or early Tuesday — possibly as a hurricane — Collier County officials will have their eyes toward the tides.

At a 2 p.m. press conference Sunday, Emergency Management Director Dan Summers said officials are concerned less with Fay as a wind event and more for its potential for significant storm surge and flooding.

They are also concerned that an unstable atmosphere that could spin off tornadoes and ravage mobile homes.

Residents along the coast should prepare for 4 to 8 feet of surge, Summers said. Emergency management officials are particularly concerned about flooding in coastal communities on the south side of the county: Everglades City, Goodland, Marco Island, Isles of Capri and Chokoloskee.

“We tell everyone to hide from the wind, but we want everyone to run from the water,” Summers said.

Late Sunday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center pushed its forecast of Fay’s track farther to the west of Southwest Florida. The forecast calls for the storm to reach hurricane strength 100 miles southwest of Naples at 2 a.m. Tuesday.

The forecasted track is similar to that of Hurricane Charley in 2004, when the storm veered ashore in Southwest Florida and caused extensive damage.

“The concern is Collier County and the Southwest coast of Florida are basically in the center of the cone of uncertainty,” Summers said.

Flooding from Fay has already killed four people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Marco Island officials met Sunday afternoon to discuss emergency plans, including the possibility of a storm surge concurrent with what officials are calling “an abnormal high tide” early Tuesday morning.

A nearly full moon has Marco Islanders bracing for the kinds of waters experienced in July, when 10 inches of rain fell in four hours during high tide, flooding major island streets and closing the Judge S.S. Jolley Bridge for several hours.

“While there’s some similarities in the high tide, similarities in the storm event, it was a good exercise for us and we stand prepared,” Marco Island spokeswoman Lisa Douglass said. “I think it’s too early to say exactly what we would or wouldn’t be expecting.”

Everglades City Mayor Sammy Hamilton Jr., said he would meet with his city staff first thing this morning to assess the threat posed by Fay.

“We’re well-prepared like I was in Wilma,” Hamilton said of the hurricane that made landfall in Collier in 2005. “We got people in lower areas, in trailer parks out. If it really does look bad, I’ll be (Monday) sometime helping people get out.”

Bonita Springs officials said Sunday they expected calls for voluntary evacuations and emergency shelter openings in Lee County Monday. There will be a voluntary evacuation for the beaches, barrier islands and other low-lying areas, Bonita Springs City Manager Gary Price said.

“There is going to be an issue for people in low-lying areas,” Price said. “There could be come localized flooding.”

Florida Power & Light officials are monitoring the storm and preparing to implement their hurricane plan if needed, spokesman Mayco Villafana said. In the spring FPL brought all its employees together and practiced a mock hurricane, to make sure everyone knows their roles.

In the event of a storm, Villafana said, people need to stay away from downed power lines, flooding, debris and standing water, and should avoid walking around after dark.

“We need to make safety a priority,” Villafana said. “That’s the most important consideration right now.”

As of Sunday evening, the American Red Cross Collier County Chapter was making provisions to staff and stock emergency shelters. Red Cross officials were calling down volunteers, securing supplies and lining up emergency response vehicles as everyone waits for word on the storm’s path.

Now is the time for residents to install storm shutters, stock up on supplies and make final preparations for Fay’s arrival, officials said.

“You’re going to need and will use things in your hurricane preparedness kit,” Summers said.

Emergency Management officials are making preparations to open three shelters — Golden Gate, Palmetto Ridge and Immokalee high schools. The earliest the shelters would open is 4 p.m. Monday, Summers said.

Anyone going to a shelter needs to bring bedding, medicine, personal items, positive identification, games for their children and possibly food to keep in their vehicles. Pets aren’t allowed in the shelters, Summers said.

As of Sunday, Collier County had issued no mandatory evacuations, though mobile home residents were under a voluntary evacuation. Even with a voluntary evacuation, Hamilton said, he usually sizes up the storm and issues his own recommendation to residents.

“I tell them in these low areas they should leave early,” he said. “They all listened to me last time.”

Douglass said officials will be fanning out through Marco Island Monday to make similar recommendations to some residents in flood zones. A notice on the city’s Web site urges residents in low-lying areas and mobile homes to leave no later than this afternoon.

In the meantime, residents are being encouraged to pick up evacuation stickers from City Hall. Though officials are saying it is too early to tell whether the bridge might be closed, the stickers will be the link for residents to return to the island after the storm has passed.

People started shopping for hurricane supplies at the Home Depot on Airport-Pulling Road over the weekend, though Assistant Manager Kevin Clear said customers seemed less concerned than before previous storms. Clear had expected business to pick up Sunday evening and Monday.

“To be honest with you, I believe a lot of people look at the category. Even a Category 1 is nothing to be ignored,” Clear said. “I think a lot of people are way too complacent right now.”

Staff writer Brad Kane contributed to this report.

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• A Collier County information hot line has been established at 252-8444 or 311 (Collier residents only), and information is also online at www.collierem.org.

• Collier commissioners are slated to meet at 9 a.m. Monday to discuss possible storm surge and its impact on low-lying areas, including Marco Island, Goodland, Isles of Capri, Everglades City and Chokoloskee. The meeting is in commission chambers, on the third floor of the W. Harmon Turner Building at 3301 U.S. 41 E.

• The decision on whether Collier County Schools will open Tuesday will be made this morning. Lee County schools’ first day is Monday.

• Marco Island City Council is still planning on holding a regularly scheduled meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday but has cancelled an earlier advisory board meeting on a potential takeover of city electricity services. A final decision on whether to cancel the regular meeting will be made after a 10 a.m. city staff meeting Monday.

• A Collier workshop on Sunshine Law, public records, ethics laws and ex-parte declaration requirements, scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday in the County Commission chambers, has been cancelled.

• On Sunday, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum announced the activation of the Attorney General’s Price Gouging Hotline for Floridians to report anyone attempting to take advantage of people preparing for or evacuating from the hurricane, at 1-866-9-NO-SCAM (1-866-966-7226).

• The Community Blood Center is encouraging the public to donate blood Monday to offset the expected disruption in Tuesday’s blood collections caused from the impending storm. Donor locations for Monday are at Community Blood Center, 311 Ninth St. N., Suite 108, Naples, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Community Blood Center, 9170 Bonita Beach Road, Bonita Springs, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and the Bloodmobile at Wal-Mart, 6650 Collier Blvd., 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.NCHmd.org or call (239) 436-5455.