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
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-
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.