County a whirl of preparation

By RICHARD DANIELSON, JEFFREY GETTLEMAN and ANGELA MOORE

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 25, 1998

AMPA -- Hillsborough County officials ended another day of frantic storm preparation Thursday with an order for 175,000 coastal and mobile residents to find safer ground first thing this morning.

More coverage from the Times on our Georges site.

Officials ordered a mandatory 6 a.m. evacuation for evacuation Zone A, which includes Davis Islands, Apollo Beach, MacDill Air Force Base and waterfront areas from Baycrest Park to Port Tampa. The order also applies to all mobile home residents.

After meeting with Hillsborough emergency planners, Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay said National Guardsmen in the Florida Keys will protect evacuated homes and be deployed here if disaster strikes.

Earlier Thursday, worried residents again bought every scrap of plywood, D-cell battery and bottle of water in sight.

At the South Tampa Target, shoppers went through 254 cases of water in half an hour.

"D batteries just aren't going to be found," manager John Dunbar said. "I had everything this morning -- propane, batteries, flashlights -- it's all gone now."

Aimee Rieck was at Target because NationsBank is setting up a child care center for all employees who must work today. She loaded two carts with gummi bears, boxed juice, diapers and paper towels.

"Our operations center at Idlewild handles check processing," she said. "We have to keep going. We have a deadline (today) with the Federal Reserve."

With 145 stores in Florida, 23 in Tampa Bay, Scotty's struggled to keep up with the voracious demand for plywood. The company sold 75 truckloads this week, about 70,000 sheets, or triple the normal demand for plywood.

"We've bought every sheet of plywood we could find in Florida," said Scotty's director of advertising Lora Kellogg, "and we're trying to get more."

At the Kash N' Karry on Swann Avenue, memories of living through Hurricane Andrew prompted Mary Kay Fairnington to make plans to leave town.

"That was just horrible," said Fairnington, who lived in Kendall. "We're going to be taping the windows tonight, and then I might go stay with family in Orlando, but I don't want to have to deal with the clogged roads."

Tampa fire stations ran out of sand for sandbags Thursday night.

In unincorporated Hillsborough County, officials used jail inmates to help distribute 250,000 sandbags and ordered another 500,000 bags to keep up with demand. County fire officials also flushed the tanks on their firetrucks and refilled them with drinking water.

Starting at 6 a.m., police will guide traffic out of neighborhoods under mandatory evacuation to 50-plus shelters across the county. Residents can go home after the storm passes, which is expected to be Saturday afternoon.

Residents who refuse to comply will be guilty of a misdemeanor, but Hillsborough officials said making arrests will not be a priority.

Closed today are all public schools, city and county offices, and state and federal courts, including bankruptcy court.

Though Georges was veering west away from Tampa Bay toward the Panhandle on Thursday night, winds were gaining speed. Georges could knock down power poles, blow out windows and flood low-lying areas.

"People should be very aware that this is a serious situation and that the storm could be dangerous," said Nance Schapira, spokeswoman for Hillsborough County Emergency Management.

The county waited to evacuate because officials want to minimize the time elderly people spend in shelters.

"Older people, especially those who have medical needs, don't do so well in shelters," said Larry Gispert, emergency manager for Hillsborough County. Officials don't expect to evacuate other zones unless the storm swings closer to Tampa Bay.

If you're not asked to leave, Gispert recommends staying home and picking up any tools, toys or furniture that could be blown by high wind, shuttering or covering windows with plywood (preferable to merely taping glass) and stocking up on non-perishable food and at least three gallons of water per person per day.

"Staying in a safe home is better than getting caught in traffic trying to get away," Gispert said.

Traffic moved at normal volumes on Tampa's major roads Thursday, but Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Mike Guzman said "it's really hard to tell what's going to happen" in a major evacuation.

By Thursday night, hotels in Brandon had become refugee centers for people fleeing Georges from the Keys, Largo, Fort Myers, Bradenton, St. Petersburg and even part of Tampa.

"Our phones have been ringing off the hook since early this morning," said John Villazon at Homestead Village, a hotel that specializes in extended-stay rooms. "We've had to turn away people since early this afternoon."

But amid Thursday's scramble, Alex Caballero and Leigh Ann Topping remained determined, even hopeful. He makes his living prosecuting felony domestic violence cases. She is a probation officer. They are scheduled to be married at 4 p.m. Saturday, with a reception at a waterfront restaurant and a honeymoon cruise to follow.

"We're going to hopefully have a wedding, rain or shine," Caballero said. "All that matters is, we'll be together for the rest of our lives."
-- Times staff writers Sue Carlton, Susan Clary, Larry Dougherty and Jeff Testerman contributed to this report.