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Article clipped from The Palm Beach Post

Winds rip Bahamas, head for U.S. WINDS/from 1A predicted immense property damage. "We're probably talking about potentially billions of dollars of damage," Chiles said at a briefing in the state's Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee. Disaster response teams were bracing for damage worse than that' caused three years ago by Hurricane Hugo in the Carolinas. Hugo, a Category 4 storm, killed 29 people and caused a record $6 billion in damage in an area where total insured property was $31 billion, said Bob Nave, director of the state Division of Emergency Management. Dade County alone has $112 billion in insured property, he said. Federal emergency officials and the National Hurricane Center predict damages in South Florida could reach between $10 billion and $15 billion. If Andrew became a Category 5 storm, with winds of 155 mph, it would be only the third Category 5 hurricane to strike the United States. The others: a Labor Day hurricane in 1935 that killed 408 people and devastated the Florida Keys and Hurricane Camille, which killed 256 and destroyed much of the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts in 1969. Storm surges from Andrew could reach 22 feet, Nave said. The wind and water surge is expected to reach 14 feet and wave action up to 8 feet high, he said. Chiles estimated about 1 million people would be evacuated from coastal areas in Dade, Broward, Monroe, Palm Beach, Lee and Collier counties. Almost 5 million people live in the counties. Chiles said there is enough space in local shelters for southeast Florida's evacuees, but people from the southwest coast would have to travel farther inland. "The southwest has a deficit of shelters," he said. "Those people will be moved up into Central Florida." Dade County has 47 shelters with a total capacity of 67,440; Broward County has 47 shelters with a total capacity of 109,763; Monroe County has two shelters with a capacity of 3,940; Martin County has seven shelters with a capacity of 14,500. Palm Beach has 29 shelters with capacity of 60,000. Thousands of cars clogged the state's highways to flee the storm's threatened brutality. Toll collectors waved motorists through gates along Florida's Turnpike south of Orange County and the Sawgrass Expressway in Broward and Dade counties. Across South Florida, residents who remained behind worked feverishly on survival tactics - taping windows and filling water containers. Grocery and hardware stores were crowded. Lines formed at' gas stations. Automatic teller LOREN G. HOSACK/Staff Photographer At the Atlantis Plaza on Lantana Road, residents endure a long line to get propane gas Sunday. machines at banks went broke. The first day of school was canceled in Palm Beach. Classes were also canceled in Monroe to St. Lucie counties. Most government offices and many businesses planned shutdowns. The vulnerable town of Palm Beach ordered all its residents to flee. Other coastal communities did the same. Roads to Singer Island and Palm Beach Shores were closed off by late afternoon. As Singer Island condominiums emptied, some wondered if the structures will still be standing tonight. "I'm hoping that we will be on the outer fringes of it," Riviera Beach police Capt. Jerry Poreba said. "You just don't know what's going to happen. Those condominiums haven't really been tested. I just hope that this isn't the test." Palm Beach International Airport closed at 10 p.m. Sunday. Airports in Fort Lauderdale and Miami closed earlier. Commercial flights were canceled or diverted. "We'll be more or less a ghost town around here," said Fred Gillie, PBIA senior operations agent. Private flyers crammed aircraft into seven hangars at PBIA for protection against the storm. All five ships docked at the Port of Palm Beach were ordered out to sea, said Port Director Ben Murphy. Port workers also lowered boom cranes and "nested" cargo containers in protective piles. "The Viking Princess came in from a coastal cruise at 2:50 this afternoon and left again at 3:16 p.m.," he said. "She'll probably go north and east to avoid the storm." Most police forces called in double shifts, and some of the smaller departments, such as Lake Worth or Riviera Beach, called in their entire departments. "We have secretaries, dispatchers, officers; we're all in here with our sleeping bags, pillows and blankets,' said Lake Worth police spokeswoman, Sgt. Sue Pults. Some families of sheriff's deputies planned to bunk at the county jail, said spokesman Bob Ferrell. Inmates will be doubling up to make room for everybody. Not many arrests are expected, so there should be sufficient room, he said. Patrol cars will cruise the county with deputies working 12-hour shifts, Ferrell said. "We're going to keep them out for as long as possible, but it comes to a point when a police car can blow off the road just as easy as any other car," he said. Patrols will be increased Monday morning to prevent looting. Andrew slashed across the Bahamas about 6 p.m. with top winds of 120 mph. The eye of the storm passed over the northern end of Eleuthera, about 280 miles east of Miami. As Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, who took office Wednesday, appealed for calm in the nation of 255,000, government authorities had unconfirmed reports of four people killed on one of the easternmost islands. "Right now, we just got the word that four people died in one of the outer islands, either Abaco or Eleuthera," said Jimmy Curry, director for production of The Baha- mas News Bureau. People began to pour out of the Florida Keys Saturday night. Monroe County officials estimated that it could take as long as 30 hours to evacuate 77,000 permanent residents and as many as 50,000 tourists. Narrow U.S. 1 proved an frustrating escape route at times - - a lift bridge at Jewfish Creek in North Key Largo was briefly stuck open Saturday night, stranding evacuees for almost an hour. Florida Department of Transportation officials subsequently ordered all bridges locked in a lowered position. By noon Sunday, 100 inmates from the Pine Key Prison in the Keys were transported to A.G. Holley Hospital in Lantana. In Broward County, boatowners followed each other toward safer ports. "You should see the parade of boats going north on the Intracoastal," said Greg Grosser, manager of the Cove Marina in Deerfield Beach. Grosser was unloading computers from the marina's office, which is a floating house. Three National Guard battalions totaling 1,500 men were placed on alert at armories in Central Florida to prepare for posthurricane duties such as anti-looting patrols. "They will be ready to move as soon as the storm has passed," Chiles said. A National Guard group based at the Armory on Gun Club Road was ordered to assist in the evacuation in Miami, according to Capt. Paul Reickhoff, commander of the 3rd Battalion 265th Air Defense Artillery Chaparral. The group of about 115 guardsmen also will pick up people stranded by the storm and provide clean water. They're taking four 400-gallon water trailers, he said. Dan Donahue, a spokesman for the National Guard, said the guard had sent a C-130 Hercules medical aircraft to evacuate 24 civilian patients from Fisherman's Hospital in Marathon in the middle Florida Keys. Chiles activated a statewide emergency plan that coordinates the efforts of various government agencies to handle the crisis. Representatives of 12 agencies staffed a round-the-clock emergency operations center operated by the Department of Community Affairs to handle the disaster planning for medicine, food, drinkable water and other needs. The governor asked President Bush to make an emergency declaration freeing financial assistance and federal troops for the state. A rumor control line also was up and running to help people cope with the hurricane. Its number is: 1-800-342-3557. Staff writers Mary Ellen Klas and Meg James also contributed to this report.
Article from 24 Aug 1992The Palm Beach Post(West Palm Beach, FL)
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CLIPPED BY
gcooper237

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