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HomeMy WebLinkAboutStorm Gordon-1994 Only the ducks aren't complaining East Seminole County managed to 4-. stay out of the path of sporadic tornadoes `` - through early Wednesday afternoon but ._ --Y� found itself with enough rain to last through next summer. Vic «.;• As Tropical Storm Gordon worked its "-F way onto the Florida mainland near Fort K �'': Myers, Central Florida was under a deluge —four inches of rain by Wednesday mom- �� '" ,, . ing with up to five more expected by late - r : Y - ; Wednesday. +: x rt • .. . Area police and rescue agencies re- `3' aa. .. .�,. ported no injuries, but there was plenty of u . mmoynance Wednesday morning as people •' '� `" slogged their way through flooded roads try- IL- SSSI..... " .. ing to get to work. x ' - The storm,which had been threaten- _ - ing the state for days,was a good test of the '` ` ''Pa, a .. area's emergency response system. z , Pt ` z .x - this,""sWae've been working since Sunday P - ; Dr&Jaxman tonne Oviedo Voice id Rick Diaz deputy director of Seminole County Public Works. "We have High waters make driving difficult on Red Bug Lake Road Wednesday morning. filled every diesel tank available so that we can provide power to sewage plants and lift The area had been spared of any ma- pected to be shut down by Wednesday after- stations should primary power be inter- jorpower outages through Wednesday mom- noon.Traffic on SR 426 at Lake Jessup had rupted." ing,according to Florida Power spokesman been reduced to one lane Closingswere also Sewage problems through Wednesday Bill Warren. "We've bad your typical little reported at the intersections of SR 426 & morning had been minimal. "We've had a outages here and there," he said,"like you Wit Arsdale and Florida&Oklahoma couple problems," said Diaz, "some water usually have with any storm, but nothing "We're handling situations as they mains exposed and roads washed out Bm serious." arise," said O.P.D. patrol commander 11. our system is fairly new,and we expect very No weather-related accidents bad been Steve Benson. "Our public wod¢ depart- few problems with it. reported by the Oviedo Police Department mew is at full stag and we are prepared "If we experience massive fl ooding, through Wednesday morning,but fl ooding should a major emergency develop."it might become a little more problematic. had required some re-routing of traffic. Hacienda Village,amobilehome park H we the ro dig ditches to keep water out SR 434 at Mitchell Hammock was of the system,we'll be working hand inhand under several inches of water,and was ex- with the roads department to do that" gy1i /7 • Storm the shelters may still be needed for Continued from page 1 families in flooded areas. "We're still looking for more in Winter Springs, was the only bad weather," said county dis- arm evacuated as of Wednes- patcher Robert Welch. He said day morning. Residents were weather forecasters have warned evacuated to Winter Springs El- that areas within 100 miles of the ementary School for the duration eye of the storm could be hit with of the storm. Some 107 homes heavy rain. were threatened by rising waters Elsewhere,a tornado stack in Gee Creek. the Barefoot Bay area south of Seminole County Sheriffs Melbourne at 7 p.m., killing one spokesman Ed Mc Donough re- and injuring at least 37. South of ported that a severe storm had _there at about the same time a caused alarm in the Geneva area FloridaGulf Airlines commuter at around 3:30 Wednesday mom- flight was heading toward Vero ing. Radar showed tomadic con- Beach, en route from Orlando to ditions, but the funnels never West Palm Beach. touched the ground. - Terry Zarnowski, who was The American Red Cross piloting the 19-passenger twin-en- opened emergency shelters at Wm- gine plane, said he encountered ter Springs Elementary School, moderate turbulence but escaped Lake Brantley High School and at the storm without incident Capt. Hamilton Elementary School in Zamowski,of Oviedo,said he had Sanford.Although weather reports not experienced such weather since late Wednesday said the storm was the summer storm sracon. moving out to sea,forecasters pre- Oviedo Voice staff report by dieted more rain in Seminole IImothyAllen Conklin and Darrell County. Emergency workers said Johnson. 041 ///� Seminole braces and Roberts and Deputy Fire Chief Terry survives Schenk began tracking Gordon by computer at the county's Emergency Management Center as it made its way ❑Public safety personnel into the gulf near Naples. All projections were that Gordon were prepared for the worst would soon make a trek back across from Gordon. As it turned the state. The biggest unknown was out, the worst of it was the how long Gordon would linger in the gulf. A respite of 24 or 36 hours might water— loads of water. turn the storm into one of nature's most awesome displays of fury and en- ergy Robert Perez ergy—a hurricane. By "The way this system developed, it OF THE SENTINEL STAFF was extremely difficult to get a real handle on it," Roberts said. "It kept everyone guessing, 'What do we do?' Early last Sunday morning, while most residents of Seminole County at- When it finally of started moving again, Y we were sort his team the eight ball." church, had breakfast or slept Roberts, his tm and Central Flor- in, Ken Roberts was thinking about ida got a break.Gordon spent less than chainsaws,generators and fuel. 12 hours in the Gulf, making landfall About 500 miles south, a giant, spin- near Fort Myers about 7 a.m. Wednes- ning storm named Gordon was wreak- day.It had not strengthened. ing havoc with its 50 mph winds and Wednesday dawned gray and wet torrents of rain. In a matter of days, over Central Florida after a night of re- the late-season tropical storm could be lentless bands of rain. By daybreak, a memory or a full-blown hurricane. It flooding problems were cropping up could be spinning harmlessly in the across the county. open Gulf.of Mexico or it could be at A quickly rising Gee Creek caused Roberts'back door. the Winter Springs Fire Department to He had to be prepared. ask residents of Hacienda Village mo- Roberts, Seminole County's emergen- bile home park to evacuate. Winter cy management coordinator, gathered Springs Elementary School was his team early Sunday and began work- opened as a temporary shelter for park ing out details of how to deal with what- residents. By 2 p.m.,two other,shelters ever Gordon might throw their way. would open. Monday morning rolled around, • Sanford motorists found a maze of cloudy and breezy. By then, Roberts barricades blocking flooded roads. could tell his boss,Public Safety Direc- Cathy Garver of Longwood awoke tor Gary Kaiser, that the county's un- about 5 a.m. to go to work. The drain- derground fuel tanks had been topped age ditch next to her property was off, emergency vehicles had been brimming. She spent the next hour fueled,and an arsenal of rescue equip- frantically trying to raise valuables off ment had been checked. County department heads met so Please see STORM, K-6 each would know his or her role if the _ storm hit. Monday night brought Seminole County showers that continued into Tuesday. Gordon had begun swamp- ing South Florida and edging its way through the Florida Straits. By Tuesday night, the storm was Q ,/ / 1 lashing the east-central coast with tor- ", -7 rential rain and wind.It claimed its first Central Florida victim when it spawned a tornado that touched down in Barefoot Bay,near Micco in Brevard County. Mud nearly swept away dreams STORM from l K-1 Seminole County schools weathered the storm fairly well, although flooded roads the floor. kept many students home. Attendance at "By the time the water started coming in, some schools was cut in half. there was no stopping it," she said. "I just At Pine Crest Elementary, walkways on thank God we had the upstairs put on, or the campus's east side were covered in wa- we'd be up the creek without a paddle." ter, forcing the school to consolidate some Garver's two-story house on Wildmere classes. But the rain could not compare to Avenue off County Road 427 was one of the flood of calls from parents that kept the many that had six inches or more of stand- front office swamped from the Pledge of Al- ing water in the quarter-mile area. legiance to dismissal. The Colorado native had planned to put "We ought to be paid triple-time," one of- the house, which her parents bought in flee worker was overheard to say. 1969, on the market Dec. 1. She also had By noon Wednesday, rain across the planned to sell the house a couple years county had subsided, although many ago, but it flooded then as well. When she waned of the proverbial calm before the planned to list it in 1990, the house caught storm. As Gordon made its way across the fire. • state its counter-clockwise rotation would "This is it- I can't take no more," said slap the area with more rain and wind form Garver. "I just want to go home!" In west Altamonte, flooding burst from a the opposite direction,some predicted. temporary retention pond, sending a river The emergency team called in four of muddy water down Orange Avenue, heavy-duty vehicles from an Orlando Ma- washing out a bridge and threatening near- rine reserve unit. The large trucks were by Spring Lake Elementary School. sent to rural east Seminole County in the Ed Hoffman and Henry Guiles' business, afternoon to navigate areas too wet for Executive Copy Center, was in the water's county vehicles. One truck carried fresh path. As the business became awash in `voter to areas where wells might have been mud, the men scrambled to keep equip- contaminated by flooding. ment off the ground. But Gordon's unpredictability gave Cen- "It was coming in just like a river,"Hoff- tral Florida another break. By 4 p.m., the man said. "I was just praying — please storm's eye was 50 miles southwest of Mel- don't wash away everything we've worked bourne, and most of its heavy rain was for." snaking up the east coast. An overflowing canal, which had sub- Seminole County would survive Gordon merged part of Hunt Club Boulevard near with isolated flooding and some road col- State Road 436 for weeks before the storm, lapses. The storm that had dominated Rob- finally won.Part of the road collapsed. erts' nights and days since Sunday would turn out to be just like "a two-day summer "It's not just flooded," County Engineer rainstorm." Jerry McCollum said. "It's a hole four-foot Thursday,7rurs deep. It ate a hole in the road." day, Roberts and his team were back at work coordinating cleanups,check- The county's public works department re- ing wells and grading roads. ceived more than 1,000 phone calls from - distressed residents who were victims of Mike Berry, Mary Brooks, Will Wellons flooding and other weather-related prob. and Elaine Bennett of the Sentinel staff lems. contributed to this report. 9y� i at 0 The Orlando Sentinel SUNDAY, December 25, 1994 Altamonte Springs aLongwood, Casselberry sez Oviedo, Winter Springs Biggest story 1 of 1994 was storm Gordon ❑Seminole residents are sets of two incumbent Democratic still feeling the effects of county commissioners, returning g control of the County Commission flooding caused by to the Republicans. torrential rain. Mother major story this year is one that hasn't actually happened yet: A third mall in Seminole. A By Lisa Lochridge nationally known mall developer wants to build a million-square- OF THE SENTINEL STAFF foot shopping center near Oviedo. Winter Springs and Oviedo are Mother Nature took top billing still arguing over roads to the over politics and development in mall. Seminole County headlines this Those are three of the year's top year. In fact, county residents are 10 news stories chosen by The Or- still feeling the effects of 1994's lando Sentinel's Seminole news biggest story,Tropical Storm Gor- staff. The rankings are based on don. the number of votes each story re- Torrential rainfall ceived. Readers also from the storm THE TEAR were asked to stranded motorists LI+I.O t t"E W choose their top 10, and deluged home- which included owners on Nov. 16 -.y� most of the stones More than two doz y� named by the news- en flooded county paper's reporters roads closed. ' `` and editors, but le.Schools let students _ there was a tie vote go home early and for the top story. closed the next day - For readers' picks, so soggy classrooms see Page IC-5. could be cleaned Here is a look ( s� Q as up. In the weeks after Gordon, back at 1994: worried downtown Sanford mer- 1.Tropical Storm Gordon chants and waterfront businesses After two days of relentless rain, watched as Lake Monroe rose to Seminole residents awoke Nov. 16 the top of the sea wall. to flooded neighborhoods and in- 1994 brought big changes in navigable roads. county politics. The September A quickly rising Gee Creek primary and the November gener- al election ended in surprise up- Please see GORDON, K4 Runners-up for top stories: Election, One-term incumbent state Sen. Gary Seigel was large planned mall defeated in the Republican primary by diamond ad porter John Ostallcewicz. Seigel of Longwood had run on his record of juvenile justice reform. Os- talkewicz had targeted the state Department of GORDON from K-1 Health and Rehabilitative Services in his campaign. In Casselberry, a crowded field of mayoral tench- caused the Winter Springs Fire Department to ask dates and confusion at the polls almost led to a court residents of Hacienda Village mobile home park to challenge of the results. Bruce Pronovost won Seat 5 evacuate.There were no injuries reported,but three by three votes over former commissioner Frank temporary shelters across the county opened for Schutte. But 51 residents did not get to vote in the those chased out of their homes by Gordon's flood- City Commission races in the general election be- ing. cause they were not given city ballots. In west Altamonte Springs, a temporary retention After a recount, however, Schutte and Mike Ruiz, pond-burst,sending a river of muddy water down Or- who came in third, decided not to protest the elm ange Avenue,washing out a bridge and threatening lion. nearby Spring Lake Elementary School. 3.The Mall at Oviedo The next day,pressure from the heavy rain caused Crossing a sinkhole to open on a vacant lot at Hunt Club Bou- In January, A. Duda & Sons Inc. acknowledged it levard and Wekiva Springs Road, leaving a pit 4f was negotiating with The Rouse Co., a well-known Peet deep and 80 feet wide. s a Road, leaving west of developer of malls across the country. Rouse wants to bring a 1.2 million-square-foot shopping center to Longwood,following second sinkhole took out part of a front the outskirts of Oviedo,on a 90-acre parcel of former yard - farmland. Along with other counties, Seminole requested Plans for The Mall at Oviedo Crossing touched off federal emergency disaster aid. a hot protest The biggest threat came a week after the storm.As Protest from Tuscawilla residents in Winter a surge in the swollen St. Johns River flowed north, Springs,who feared it would bring thousands of mo- water management district officials predicted the riv- torists through the country club community. In late er and Lake Monroe would rise 11/2 feet June, the Winter Springs City Commission denied Sanford officials warned that the lake might louse's request for a mall access road connecting to breach the sea wall and flood the waterfront and Winter Springs Boulevard. downtown businesses. They worried that wind-driv- The story is still developing: Oviedo likely could en waves would eat away at the meager beach that sue Winter Springs over building an access road.The remained on the marina's northeast side. City crews two cities are still discussing the issue.Rouse hopes dumped 24 truckloads of rubble on the shore before to beg construction in late 1895 and open in the their supply of fill material ran out, summer of 1997. The flooding never came,however.Dry weather in 4.The Greened/ay • the weeks after the storm kept the lake from peaking After many years of planning and months of de- as officials had predicted. lays, the final leg of the Central Florida GreeneWay 2.The election opened on May 7. Stretching from U.S. Highway 17- The word"upset"was on many people's lips after 92 to State Road 434, the six-mile leg connects an- the primary and general elections. other six-mile segment of the GreeneWay that Former Longwood Mayor Adrienne Perry, a Re- opened earlier this year through Seminole County's publican, forced Democratic County Commissioner eastern suburbs. Carlton Henley into a primary runoff for the District The toll road gives Sanford, Lake Mary, Oviedo 2 seat. After spending the day stumping in beauty and other population centers easier access to Orlan- parlors, day-care centers and the waiting room of a do International Airport, the University of Central hospital, Perry beat Henley by 38 votes. She lost in the general election to former Lake Mary Mayor Ran- dy Morris. • Morris'victory and political newcomer Win Adams' Surprise defeat of District 4 incumbent Larry Fur- long, a Democrat, re-established Republican corn- grand of the commission.