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Battening down hatches means sinking a few
By DAVID K. ROGERS © St. Petersburg Times, published September 25, 1998 No torpedoes were involved. The U.S. Coast Guard approved storm preparations to protect the Russian cruise missile submarine that has become a tourist attraction at Bayboro Harbor. The sub received permission to take on ballast water, allowing it to rest on the harbor bottom about 5 feet below the surface, safe from Georges' effects. "The Coast Guard said they wished that every boat over 200 feet long could do that," said Jim Corlett, general manager of the 300-foot sub. That wouldn't quite work for a second vessel that took precautions Thursday. The 326-foot Imperial Princess, seized by the city in February for lack of dockage payments, took on water ballast to lower its profile and to make it more stable. Mooring lines were doubled and its anchors were dropped. "The vessel will remain in port" despite the weather, said city marina and port director Dave Metz. "The vessel is now as well-protected as it could be under the circumstances." Ships that size typically would head for deeper water away from port to ride out a storm, but this ship is not typical. Empress Cruise Lines owns it, but the city seized it seven months ago when the company failed to pay for its dock space. Today, Metz said, the city calculates the bill at about $237,000. The sides have been negotiating, he said, and a proposed agreement could be before the council as early as next week. City officials, meanwhile, focused on meeting a mandatory evacuation order beginning at 6 a.m. today for mobile homes and the most flood-prone areas. Officials decided to close most -- but not all -- city operations and offices today. Trash collection, both residential and commercial, will remain in service today until 2 p.m. Recreation centers, with the exception of Shore Acres, will remain open today with regular programs, including day care, in operation. Shore Acres will be closed because it is in the mandatory evacuation zone. By 7 p.m. Thursday, the city's emergency operations center at 400 M.L. King (Ninth) St. had started to hum. Four city employees stayed busy with a bank of steadily ringing phones. "Okay, let me get my big map out here," said firefighter Alan Jones as he consulted a map of St. Petersburg glued to a foam board. Seconds later, he said into his phone headset: "You are smack dab in the middle of it. You are smack dab in the middle of the mandatory evacuation area." The need to prepare for bad weather was so strong Thursday that members of the City Council said they would try to be snappy with their night meeting. No more than an hour, instructed council chairwoman Bea Griswold. They might have canceled the meeting outright, but one issue couldn't wait. On Tuesday, the new regional water utility called Tampa Bay Water is scheduled to purchase the city's water wells in Hillsborough and Pasco counties for nearly $100-million. The city was limited to using the money and the interest it generates in two ways: It could pay off debt incurred during development of the city's water system or help maintain the water system. The rules did not allow the city to use the money to help keep water rates down for city residents. Since that is just what Mayor David Fischer and most council members had in mind, they wanted the rules changed Thursday. After a half-hour's discussion and assurances from the city's private bond counsel, Tampa attorney Grace Dunlap, the council unanimously approved the change.
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T. PETERSBURG -- Signs abounded Thursday that St. Petersburg officials were busy preparing the city for Hurricane Georges: They opened an emergency operations center, cut short a City Council meeting and sank a Russian submarine.
