Times Leader

By and MARTIN MERZER Knight Ridder

Monday, July 11, 2005 Page: 5A

Shingles flew through the air. Sea invaded land. Power lines didn’t stand a
chance. It seemed so familiar, except for this: Hurricane Dennis might not
have been costly in lives and damage, at least by Florida’s recent standards.

“We need to say a little prayer tonight,” said Escambia County Sheriff Ron
McNesby, “because the good Lord took care of us.”
The strongest hurricane to ever directly strike Florida in July but also
one that moved with charitable swiftness, Dennis slammed into the Pensacola
area Sunday and into 1 million people still scarred by last year’s assault
from Hurricane Ivan.

The core drilled the Gulf Coast with estimated 120 mph winds, officially
making landfall on Santa Rosa Island at 3:25 p.m. That made it a major
Category 3 hurricane and put it squarely in the same area splintered last
September by Ivan. Unlike Ivan, Dennis is not expected to seriously impact
weather in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

“It’s probably not going to affect us,” said Michael Cempa, a meteorologist
with the National Weather Service in Binghamton. “Right now it looks like it’s
going to stall out in the Ohio Valley.”

Many Florida residents inspecting post-storm damage discerned the
difference between Dennis and Ivan. For one thing, the worst of Dennis missed
the most heavily populated areas.

Ivan killed 29 people in the Panhandle and inflicted more than $7 billion
in damage across the Southeast. One Dennis-related death was reported by
Sunday night.

“It’s a hell of a lot better than it was last time,” said Ouida Tucker, who
just spent $10,000 to repair his Ivan-damaged home in Pensacola. All he could
find Sunday was a downed oak tree, a twisted fence and some damage to his new
roof.

Florida now has endured five hurricanes within 10 months. The hurricane
season lasts until Nov. 30. Forecasters say something else already is brewing
in the Atlantic.

“We’re tired already,” said Dino Villani, director of public safety for
battered Okaloosa County, east of Pensacola. “We’re still tired from last
year, and we’re already tired now.”

And a lot of work remained to be done.

One of many examples: Chest-high water flowed through much of St. Marks, a
town about 20 miles south of Tallahassee and far from the center of the storm,
an indication of the hurricane’s wide sweep.

Even before Dennis arrived, one storm-related death was reported in Walton
County. Officials said 3-year-old Christopher Miller of Defuniak Springs fell
from a car and was run over by his family as they prepared to evacuate.

No other casualties were immediately reported.

A preliminary survey of downtown Pensacola indicated the city avoided major
destruction: some damaged roofs at the airport and elsewhere, some flooded
streets, many broken trees.

Assessments from other places came slowly, but the overall picture seemed
to suggest a relatively modest toll, all things considered.

Other reports spoke of damaged beachside buildings, widespread flooding
along the coast and in some interior areas, and several bridges that might
need repair.

“It doesn’t seem it was nearly as bad as Ivan for us,” said Sandee Launch,
a spokeswoman for Okaloosa County, just east of where the core struck.

Steve Robson, 36, who lives near the bay in Fort Walton Beach, said he
thought he was in for a bad night.

“I started to hear the noise of the limbs crashing down and the water
splashing up over the berm” that protects his patio and sliding glass doors,
he said. “The water was rising very quickly, but the wind died down and the
water started receding.”

As he spoke, Robson shoveled away sand he had piled around his house for
protection.

Utility officials said more than 140,000 customers in Florida were without
power and much of Montgomery, Ala., was blacked out, but that’s all relative,
too.

“No power? That’s OK,” said Suzan Troup of Pensacola. “I’m willing to live
without power as long as the bay isn’t in my living room.”

A measure of caution was required, however. Typically, the full extent of
casualties and damage is not known until days after a hurricane passes.

With the wind still blowing, Gov. Jeb Bush and top state and federal
officials pledged a swift response.

Convoys of trucks carrying water, ice and other relief supplies and
assistance, some from South Florida, stood ready along the periphery of the
target zone. More than 1,000 National Guardsmen and 700 state law-enforcement
officials mustered there as well.

“The minute it is safe, we are going to move,” Bush said.

The message delivered by him and other officials: We’re getting good at
this. After all, we’ve had enough practice.

Villani said the swarm of Florida-bound hurricanes “have made us better
prepared for that which we will face in the future.” His county required
“one-tenth the time to prepare for this storm than Ivan.”

But Floridians will need more help, and the governor urged his brother,
President Bush, to declare the entire state a disaster area, making it
eligible for federal aid.

“This storm is demoralizing for our citizens and will be a severe financial
hardship for Panhandle counties already saddled with an onerous fiscal
burden,” the governor wrote in the request.

As large and powerful as it was, Dennis still had a positive aspect: Its
eye wall, which produces the strongest winds, was relatively compact and it
sped quickly through the area.

“If there’s good news, it’s that this moved fast,” said Matthew Lopez,
chief of Escambia County Emergency Management. “It went out as soon as it came
in.”

The worst of the winds lasted a little over 20 minutes, Lopez said, and the
eye needed only nine minutes to roll through.

In addition, Dennis could not have surprised anyone. Beginning last
Thursday, the National Hurricane Center’s forecasters consistently identified
the Pensacola area as the likely point of impact on the mainland.

Ben Nelson, the state meteorologist, commended them for a “reliable,
accurate and incredible forecast.”

Nelson said it was the first major hurricane to make landfall in Florida in
July since record-keeping began in 1851.

In Navarre Beach, close to Dennis’ landfall, the storm surge crested almost
to the 5-foot mark, crumbling sections of road and tossing a television news
station truck about 50 yards until it fell to its side.

HOW TO HELP

* American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, (800) 435-7669 or
www.redcross.org

*Catholic Charities, USA, (800) 919-9338, or www.catholic

charitiesusa.org

*Salvation Army, (800) 725-2769 or www.1800salarmy.



*United Methodist Committee on Relief, (800) 554-8583, or gbgm-umc.org