Near water, residents board up and wait

By SUSAN CLARY

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 25, 1998

AMPA -- Ten years ago, Warren Wright decided to spend $6,500 for Roll-a-way storm shutters on the windows of his waterfront home. He had had too many close calls to take another chance.

More coverage from the Times on our Georges site.

On Thursday, Wright was the envy of his Baycrest neighborhood, an area just south of Memorial Highway and Hillsborough Avenue where the homes sit on canals off Tampa Bay. It is a vulnerable spot when a hurricane hits.

"If it's going to come, it's going to come," Wright said. "That's the chance you take when you live on the water."

Like most people who live on the water, Baycrest residents prepared their homes Thursday for the strong winds and driving rains expected this weekend.

Some people boarded up windows with plywood and lined doors with sandbags. Others lifted boats out of the water or dumped patio furniture into the pool to keep it from being blown away.

"We've been lucky because we've escaped from them in previous years," said Irwin Alber, who spent the day boarding up his home. Jim and Bridget Chaudoin were vacationing in North Myrtle Beach when they saw the news of Hurricane Georges and decided to return home.

Chaudoin's two water scooters were tucked safely inside his garage, but he said he would wait and watch the hurricane's path before he took any other steps to secure his property.

"I've lived here all my life and I've seen these things come and go," Chaudoin said. "I don't want to go to any unnecessary expense until I see where it goes."

Mindee Cobb said she wasn't going to take any chances. She spent the day filling bags with dirt from a planter in front of her home and caulking around the seams of her doors.

Cobb said many of her neighbors planned to park their cars along the median on Memorial Highway. Her husband hooked their 18-foot boat to his candy apple red 1971 Cutlass. He planned to take them to a parking garage.

"We went through Hurricane Andrew and that was absolutely devastating," said Cobb, who moved to Tampa from Fort Lauderdale. "I don't think anyone thinks about it until it's pressing down."

Russ Williams, the mail carrier for Baycrest since 1985, said Thursday he has had to live by the famous postal motto: neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

But since he is not scheduled to work today and Saturday, Williams said he hopes he can escapeHurricane Georges.

"I'm not coming into work," Williams said. Then, he added, "Of course, if they call me, I'll have to."

For the first time in 32 years, Frank Doerr was securing the steel shutters to his Baycrest home late Thursday. He spent the day putting everything inside his home on concrete blocks.

"I'm not particularly worried, but I'm trying to be ready," said Doerr, who pulled his boat into his back yard and filled it with water. Still, there were some people who decided not to go to all the trouble of battening down the hatches.

Don and June Norris, who live on the very end of the finger on Baycrest, said they wouldn't leave even if they were asked to evacuate. June Norris said her husband is in denial, but Norris said he has lived through the worst.

"I've been through all of them -- one through five," Norris said. "I'm going to stay ."

After pulling down his storm shutters, Wright prepared his 38-foot recreational vehicle. His friend across the street, Joe D'Angelo, said he had a better idea.

"I'm just going to do a lot of praying," D'Angelo said. "I can replace the house, but I can't replace a life."