Georges
information come from the
Pensacola
News Journal
Georges floods
roads, erodes beach and pours rain on Panhandle
News-Journal
Wire Services
PENSACOLA
- Roads flooded, beaches eroded and thousands fled
their homes as Hurricane Georges struck the Florida
Panhandle a glancing blow Sunday. The storm was
expected to continue battering the region with rain,
strong winds and high water Monday.
Georges,
which had been on a northwest course heading for
Louisiana, took a slightly more northerly track
Sunday, prompting officials to step up preparations
for hurricane force winds in the western Panhandle.
"Georges
has taken a more eastern wobble," said Gov.
Lawton Chiles said in Tallahassee after meeting
with state emergency officials. "With hurricane
force winds extending 100 miles, a slight move to
the east can mean big problems for us."
In
Miami, National Hurricane Center Director Jerry
Jarrell agreed.
"Maybe
it is now moving a little more northward. That would
be good news for the New Orleans area, if that pans
out," Jarell said, adding: "It would be
bad news for perhaps Gulfport and the places a little
further east."
The
center of the storm was still expected to make landfall
west of Florida on Monday, but the east side is
the strongest part of any hurricane and that meant
the Panhandle could face stronger winds and higher
waves.
A
gust of 60 miles per hour, still below the 74 mph
dividing line between a tropical storm and hurricane,
was recorded late Sunday at the Escambia County
Emergency Operations Center in Pensacola, said spokeswoman
Shawn Henning.
Officials
ordered the Pensacola Bay Bridge, the only direct
link between Pensacola and coastal areas to the
east including suburban Gulf Breeze, closed at 6
p.m. CDT because of rising winds.
Earlier,
they closed bridges to traffic going onto two barrier
islands where high surf on top of a possible 5-foot
storm surge was threatening to undermine the foundations
of beachfront homes. The high water swept away piers
along bays and other waterways.
Evacuation
orders were issued as early as Friday affecting
225,000 people who live on barrier islands, in low-lying
areas and in mobile homes in Escambia, Santa Rosa,
Okaloosa and Walton counties, but an undetermined
number chose to stay. No deaths or injuries were
reported.
More
than 4,200 people were staying in 32 shelters in
the western Panhandle on Sunday night, state emergency
officials said.
Scattered
power outages affected about 6,000 homes and businesses
in the Pensacola area. Gulf Power Co. spokesman
John Hutchinson said repair crews were taken off
the streets when winds picked up late Sunday afternoon.
State
forecasters said as much as 10 inches of rain could
fall in Florida's two westernmost counties, Escambia
and Santa Rosa.
"It
isn't the storm that scares me. It's more that I
don't want to be isolated here," said Jeorg
Lehmann, among the last people leaving Perdido Key,
an island west of Pensacola. "I would be scared
if I was in New Orleans right now."
Lehmann,
23, is a German Air Force flight student from Berlin
undergoing training at Pensacola Naval Air Station.
He shares a rented home on Perdido Key with other
trainees.
The
Gulf of Mexico washed across roads in three communities
on Santa Rosa Island, which extends for about 50
miles from Pensacola to Destin. They included U.S.
Highway 98, which was closed between Destin and
Fort Walton Beach in Okaloosa County.
"We've
really probably had more water over there than I've
seen in a long time to be in the conditions we are,"
said Escambia County Sheriff's Lt. Ron McNesby at
Pensacola Beach on the west end of the island. "Usually,
you see this when the storm is closer to you and
much more intense."
On
Navarre Beach at the island's midsection, sheriff's
deputies went door-to-door at 1 a.m. Sunday, urging
people to leave after roads began flooding, said
Bill Gilbert, a spokesman for Santa Rosa County.
"There
still are some people out there," he said.
"We don't know exactly how many there are."
Drinking
water was shut off to Navarre Beach to prevent it
from being drained by possible line breaks.
At
Perdido Key, Joe Gilchrist and Jim Davenport, both
56, finished off an egg and barbecued rib brunch
at Davenport's house while keeping an eye on water
rising in the Intracoastal waterway behind it. It
had risen above the dock and was creeping into the
yard, but the men were high and dry because the
house is raised on stilts.
"If
it looks like the water's going to breach the roads
... then, yah, I'll leave, but if not, I'll stay,"
said Davenport, a real estate developer. "I'm
not a hero or anything."
Gilchrist,
co-owner of the Flora-Bama Lounge, which straddles
the state line on the beach, planned to go to a
motel on the mainland. The ribs were left over from
a storm-shortened "Blues, Booze and Barbecue
Weekend" that ended when the Flora-Bama closed
at 11 p.m. Saturday.
"I
feel for the people in Louisiana. I'm thankful for
us," Gilchrist said. "I'm not very superstitious,
but I think it's bad karma to wish it on other people."
Gilchrist
said he and the Flora-Bama, where the motto is "Last
to close, first to open," have g
one through many storms.
His main worry was his 40-foot sailboat tied with
extra lines to a dock at his house, also on Perdido
Key.
"It's
wrapped up like a spider's prey," he said.
"There's nothing else I could do at this point."
one through
many storms. His main worry was his 40-foot sailboat
tied with extra lines to a dock at his house, also
on Perdido Key.
"It's
wrapped up like a spider's prey," he said.
"There's nothing else I could do at this point."
