The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 6

6A THE PALM BEACH POST SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 2002 Tragedy brought opportunity for some Health experts to eye Army killings wry ANDREW fromlA County from Broward County than from New York and New Jersey combined, the figures show. It was a migration born on Broward's explosive growth. For lifelong Pompano Beach resident Christine Davis, the fallout proved too strong. "I didn't want my son growing up in that kind of area. It was just too crowded.

You couldn't go anywhere without seeing concrete," said Davis, who spent two years building a home in The 1 1 NAUTICA I AV After Andrew, Mitch and Robin Frasca withstood 26 days without power in their i ay Park home in northern Coleman i iii in i i fi 'i' i ir BRUCE R. BENNETTStaff Photographer The Davis family moved to The Acreage from Pompano Beach, an ex- County. From left are Christine, Zachary, Mike, and his mother, Fran, ample of the huge migration of Broward residents to Palm Beach They were fed up with the crowding and changing culture of Broward. Mlam 4 0 5 MILES Kendall Key New residents since Andrew Most Miami-Dade residents moved to Broward County In the years since Hurricane Andrew displaced more than 100,000 people in Miami-Dade County the movement to Broward County accelerated. Figures are through 2001.

From Miami-Dade to Broward County Biscayne Mr 230,710 By ROBERT BURNS The Associated Press WASHINGTON Alarmed by a series of domestic killings and suicides at Fort Bragg, N.C., the Army is sending in a team of health specialists to study a range of possible explanations, officials said Friday. The Army disputed reports that it is focusing mainly on the possibility of a link to use of the antimalarial drug Lariam, although officials said this was among the issues to be examined. Lariam was prescribed to troops who fought in Afghanistan. Three of the four soldiers involved in the killings had recently returned from duty there, although the Army will not say how many of them took Lariam. "Contrary to news reports speculating that the team will focus primarily on anti-malaria prophylaxis medications taken by soldiers, the team will consult with local medical and unitinstallation leadership at Fort Bragg on a wide variety of possible contributing factors," an Army statement said.

The team will consider factors related to how the Army prepares soldiers and their families to deal with personal and other problems before an overseas deployment and supports them upon their return. The Army said it would look into "behavioral health issues" related to overseas deployments that are not unique to Fort Bragg. The Fort Bragg killings began June 11. That day, Sgt 1st Class Rigoberto Nieves, 32, a Special Forces soldier, fatally shot his wife and then himself, two days after he had returned from Afghanistan. Later that month, according to police investigators, another Special Forces soldier, Master Sgt.

William Wright, 36, killed his wife and weeks later led authorities to her body. On July 19, Sgt 1st Class Brandon Floyd, reportedly a member of the secret Delta Force, shot his wife and then killed himself. Also in July, Marilyn Griffin, who had separated from her husband in May, was stabbed to death and her body set on fire in her home. Sgt Cedric Griffin, 28, who is with the 18th Airborne Corps and had never been to Afghanistan, was charged. But Broward County residents moved to Palm Beach County As Broward County filled, more people moved to Palm Beach County VW 344th St STAFF GRAPHIC Note: Records do not account for all migration since everyone doesnt file a tax return.

Dade County. "You live in an environment where the environment is changing but you don't notice it," Frasca said. "I would say the hurricane was a catalyst an eye-opener so you could see what was going on." It took a year for it to dawn on him that it was all too much the storm, the changing neighborhood, the crime. In the weeks after Andrew, Frasca, a Plantation police officer, delivered ice to help quench the thirst of Florida City. He started with his handgun strapped inconspicuously to his ankle.

By the end, he wore it tucked boldly in his waistband. When he watched from his front step as a man broke into his neighbor's house a year after the storm, Frasca gave chase and tackled the man in a bank parking lot. That's what did it It was time, he and Robin decided, to leave. The Frascas contributed to the jump in migration from Dade to Palm Beach County in the years after the hurricane. The numbers rose 10 percent the first year and another 17 percent the next.

But that was nothing compared to the movement from Dade to Broward. The number jumped 50 percent the first year and stayed high through the 1990s. Eventually, more than 230,000 people made the move. Broward met the demand Broward had loads of new housing ready to meet the demand. Dade exiles could move to new homes but hold onto their jobs.

For many fed up with the rush-hour crush of south Dade, commuting from Broward could be no worse. Second-generation His-panics pushed into the new housing of Broward, still within reach of families in older Miami neighborhoods. New suburbs took on a decidedly Hispanic face. The 2000 Census found Hispanics made up nearly one-fifth of Broward's population, a 150 percent increase over 1990. "A lot of this would have From Broward to Palm Beach County 100,871 groups find themselves bound in similar housing not by race but by economic status.

"There is no sense investing your biggest life investment in an area where it is not safe and it's not going to appreciate," Kolo said. "Whether you're black or white, the decision will be economic." While politicians shun the term Browardization, many fear it's too late to stop Palm Beach County's transformation. Phil Hauger retired after 30 years in western Broward County. He followed his son to Palm Beach County, where he runs a hurricane shutter business. What Hauger found here reminds him a lot of where he came from.

Hauger lives near Seminole Pratt Whitney Road in The Acreage, one of the county's last frontiers. It reminds him of the place he fled three decades ago University Drive near Coral Springs. Andrew financed a dream "University Drive is bumper to bumper now. Unfortunately, Seminole Pratt will be that way one day," Hauger said. As Palm Beach County's population topped 1 million, climbing 31 percent during the 1990s, many of the newcomers hailed from Dade and Broward counties, following a path torn open by Andrew.

For Coleman, the hurricane literally helped him finance his dream. The insurance payment on his destroyed house paid off his mortgage and covered his living expenses while he and his wife struggled to build a following for their South Palm Community Church. In tragedy, Coleman seized opportunity. From Miami-Dade to Palm Beach County 29,125 STAFF GRAPHIC happened anyway," Broward senior planner Bill Leonard said. "It was fertile ground." But the hurricane quickened the rush.

Pompano Beach's change proved too much for Davis. Her neighborhood off Federal Highway declined. People weren't taking care of their homes. It irked her that immigrants seemed uninterested in learning English. Her 8-year-old son was a minority in his classroom.

"That's when I knew it was time to get out of that area," she said. Housing is such a big investment for most people that it takes something substantial to persuade them to move, experts say. "One of the problems with housing is it is a decision that's hard to reverse," said University of Florida economist David Lenze. Insurance-flush Dade residents pushing north fueled demand for housing in Broward County, raising prices and helping ease the burden of moving, he said. While white flight is part of the equation, race is not as much a factor as economics, said Jerry Kolo, director of Florida Atlantic University's Center for Urban Redevelop ment.

Divergent ethnic Source: Internal Revenue Service tax returns, U.S. Census Bureau "There's a biblical injunction that when bad things happen, it's not what happens to you, it's what happens to what happens to you," he said. "The hurricane answered all my questions." It moved Lois Mann as well. Mann, a Kendall real estate agent, huddled with her husband and her dog in a closet beneath the stairs as Andrew howled outside their home. They thought they were safe until water poured through the walls.

When they emerged, most of their home was gone, as was their reluctance to move away. "Being in real estate you're kind of afraid of walking away from a client base," said Mann, who found a new client base in Boca Raton. "Basically, you say, 'God give me a and you can't get a clearer sign than that one. "I call it St Andrew in retrospect because it did get us out of there. It was something we both wanted but we never would have done it if we hadn't gotten the kick in the butt." joelengelhardtpbpostcom Ralph Lauren Cole Haan Donald Pliner Ga.

district may OK creationism teachings igin of the species." Board chairman Curt said he did not know how the policy would change classroom practices and was unsure whether the new language would allow creationism to be discussed. The board felt it should consider the plan because some teachers worried they would get in trouble if they taught any alternatives to evolution, Johnston said. "We've been told by our attorney we're not allowed to teach creationism. But the point is we want free and open discussion in the classroom," he said. "And our The Associated Press MARIETTA, Ga.

With some parents asking for teachers to mention biblical creationism as an alternative to evolution, officials said they will consider allowing differing views about the origin of life to be taught in Georgia's second-largest school district The Cobb County school board voted unanimously Thursday to review a proposal that says the district "believes that discussion of disputed views of academic subjects is a necessary element of providing a balanced education, including the study of the or teachers are nervous about what they can talk about This will clarify things." The theory of evolution says evidence shows that life developed from earlier forms through slight variations over time and that natural selection determines species survival. Creationism credits the origin of species to God. In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that creationism was a religious belief that could not be taught in public schools along with evolution. Some parents say they see the proposal as a back door to get religion in schools.

CO CO a 0) CO YA suggests halt to common knee operation LU CO CO THREE PRICES $j(S)99 $gg)99 49" D) The New York Times The Department of Veterans Affairs has issued an advisory to its doctors recommending that they not perform a common knee operation until it is reviewed by a panel of experts. The operation, arthroscopic surgery to relieve pain of osteoarthritis, is done on more than 225,000 middle-age and older Americans each year, at a cost of more than $1 billion to Medicare, the VA and private insurers. But a study by VA researchers recently concluded that it was no more effective than placebo arthroscopy. Dr. Jonathan Perlin, acting deputy under secretary for health at the Veterans Affairs Department, signed the advisory on Aug.

14, and the agency sent it to the nation's VA hos pitals. "It is quite a strong recommendation," Perlin said. "Here you have an area where care was being provided on the basis of consensus," he said, meaning doctors' general clinical impressions that arthroscopy was called for in osteoarthritic knee patients. Now a study has provided objective data. Dr.

Nelda Wray, chief of health services research at Baylor College of Medicine, published a study July 11 in the New England Journal of Medicine. It involved 180 patients with osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease, in the knee. They were randomly assigned to have either a placebo operation or one of two versions of the knee surgery. Patients in all three groups said afterward that they felt better, but none improved in objective tests of knee functions. I CO CO CO 0 Michael Kors Charles Jourdan Rangoni.