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2A FLORIDA TODAY, Saturday, September 1 8, 1 999 Hurricanu Around Brevard Erosion toll on beaches costly Hurricane took big toll on us psychologically EROSION, From 1A TOLL, From 1A rr. your family's not there. All you have is the stuff you own." Betsy Baughan, a licensed mental health counselor, said children older than 3 can be talked to rationally about the threat of the hurricane. Younger children also may understand more than their parents suspect, she said. Experts say we should all get back to normal in a few days.

They advise people who continue to be stressed out about Hurricane Floyd to consult a mental health expert. In the meantime, experts say you can reduce your stress by Malcolm Denemark, FLORIDA TODAY MERCURY REDSTONE rocket that sat on launch pad complex 56 at Cape Canaveral Air Station was downed by winds from Hurricane Floyd. The complex is where astronaut Alan Shepard was launched into space. lion was for debris cleanup, $600,000 for parks damage, $280,000 for police and fire protection and the remainder for road repairs and other public works projects, Lay said. After a closer examination Friday morning, Barker raised the request for beach restoration to $5.6 million.

She found the county qualified for about three times as much beachfront money as she initially had estimated and gave the revised figure to the state Friday afternoon. Floyd's damage is the worst erosion since the 1984 Thanksgiving storm. "If you look at what has been exposed by this storm, we are down to the sandbags that were placed there as a result of the prior storm," Barker said. In other words, 15 years of city and county beach renourishment projects were washed away by one storm, Barker said. FEMA engineers will have to compare what the beaches look like today with survey maps showing what the beaches looked like before Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd came along, Barker said.

The damage comes at a time when Congress is set to debate how much to give Brevard and the state for a 50-year beach restoration proj-ect scheduled to begin in November 2000. "We'll start building a beach as fast as contractors can pump sand onto the beach," Barker said. The House has approved $5 million in start-up money; the Senate has OK'd $1 million. Whatever Con- In Brevard, nine homes sustained major structural damage, said James Hagen, executive director of the American Red Cross' Brevard chapter. That included two post-storm house fires in Melbourne.

Overall, Lay characterized the damage as minimal, not enough to qualify for the same disaster relief as North Carolina or New Jersey, or merit a preliminary damage assessment by FEMA officials. "We didn't have that much damage in terms of being eligible for individual assistance," Lay said. "I havent heard of any reported loss of homes here, but in North Carolina they lost homes." Brevard did qualify for assistance under an emergency declaration issued by Clinton, Lay said. Under the lesser order, it is eligible to receive money to clean up debris and pay for police, fire and emergency assistance during the first 72 hours of the storm, he said. Lay submitted a preliminary damage report of $4.67 million to state emergency management officials responsible for handling requests for federal disaster relief more than three times the $3 per capita threshold set by federal regulations.

"The money will come from FEMA," Barker said. "The state's role is just to help the coastal counties put together their request." Using an estimate provided by Barker and state engineers, the county asked for $2.1 million for beach restoration. Another $1 mil "The fact that your home could have been destroyed, your body and mind prepare for the worst," Harle said. "When the worst doesn't happen, we are still geared up." On Monday, Steven Sterling imagined his Indian Harbour Beach home without a roof, flooded and surrounded by destruction. During the evacuation, he felt alert, in charge.

Then the realization struck that he could return to damage. "I was not myself Tuesday at all. I've been on edge, losing my temper easily, really tired and not able to sleep since I got back," he said. Likening Brevard County's Hurricane Floyd experience to a near-death in the family, Clowney said teen-agers could worry excessively because they naturally are more materialistic. "Families were telling children, 'Get everything that is important to you because it may not be here when you get Clowney said.

Joanna McClure, an 18-year-old student at Savannah College of Art and Design, headed back to her family home in Indialantic after her dormitory was evacuated. "I had moved all my stuff to Savannah. I thought my stuff would be gone either way," she said. "When you go away to college, uoing ine iuuowing. Accept your feelings.

Talk to family and friends. Get back to normal routines. Eat well and sleep well. Stay in contact with friends and family. Realize the hurricane is out of your control, but that you can control your preparedness for it.

Involve children with decision-making whenever possible. For instance, ask them what kind of soup to put into your hurricane supply box or what kind of toys to take to the shelter. For children 5 and older, turn the event into a science lesson. If your teens don't talk about the near brush with Hurricane Floyd, ask them about their feelings. Get philosophical; put your life into perspective.

gress allocates would be only 60 percent of the cost share, with state and local governments contributing equally to the remaining 40 percent of costs. "Hopefully this will give our legislative delegation some extra fuel to get the money," Barker said. Brevard has 22 miles of damaged coastline designated by the state as a critical erosion area, according to a recent congressional report. Ron Burch, the county's mitigation and redevelopment coordinator, was confident the state would accept the higher erosion estimates from Barker. The county's damage estimate also doesn't include the 37 miles of federal shoreline that make up Canaveral National Seashore, Kennedy Space Center and Canaveral Air Station.

Floyd caused $480,000 in damage at Canaveral National Seashore, wrecking 15 dune crossovers and wiping out as many as 1,000 sea turtle nests, park Superintendent Robert Newkirk said. Temporary repairs are being made so the park can reopen next week, but it may be six to eight months before all the damaged boardwalks are repaired, Newkirk said. Winds from Floyd eroded the dune lines and snapped tree branches, while waves broke through the dunes between parking areas No. 8 and 9, washing across the road to Mosquito Lagoon. The Associated Press and Florida Today reporters John Tuohy and Marilyn Meyer contributed to this report.

inn fZFt Tl frrj3 FPL workers finish restoring power in Brevard etj flovd, to vozxs unitize i rnr mediately after the storm. FPL corporate spokeswoman Kathy Scott said it took longer to restore power in areas thick with trees because crews had to clear debris before repairing the power lines. Repairs were further slowed as crews went door to door to restore power to individual customers. "They may restore a line that serves 100 customers, but only 75 people have power," Scott said. "A crew may find that a service wire is down, or the house needs backyard work." By Jeff Schweers FLORIDA TODAY Florida Power Light Co.

crews scurried around Brevard County on Friday, clearing tree limbs and other debris and repairing the last of the downed power lines. By around 10 p.m. virtually all of the 13,000 FPL customers who woke up without power Friday had their electicity restored, FPL spokesman Sandy Sanderson said The last of the powerless sounded frustrated by early after noon. Power began failing as winds from Hurricane Floyd picked up Tuesday. "I can't cook.

I can't bathe," said Suntree resident Wanda Blake, 71, whose home was among 64 in the Inverness area still without power at 6 p.m. Crews would be going out to re-check areas to make sure everything was working, Sanderson said. "All tickets have been issued to crews, and they are out there doing the work," Sanderson said. Almost 90,000 Brevard County residents were without power im State: You may not get paid if business closed for storm the hurricane, but employees didn't come in because they evacuated, they're not entitled to compensation, Cardwell said. "There's nothing for, them to qualify for," she said.

their employees, even though the companies essentially closed down for the storm. And some may have paid their employees, even if the business stayed open but workers evacuated. But federal labor guidelines, according to Cardwell, say if a business closed because of Hurricane Floyd, there's a one-week waiting period before unemployment benefits kick in. "If a person is out of work for one day because of a storm, then there's not a one-week waiting period, so they're not eligible for benefits," Cardwell said. "Anyone who wants to get unemployment because of a disaster has to first exhaust all of their normal unemployment benefits." If businesses stayed open during By Wayne T.

Price FLORIDA TODAY If you missed work because of Hurricane Floyd either because your place of employment closed or because you evacuated you could be out of luck as far as receiving compensation. That's the word from Florida's Department of Labor and Employment Security, which has fielded dozens of calls asking those questions. 'Tm not the bearer of good news, but hopefully people at least understand it," said Gailee Cardwell, a spokeswoman for the state's Labor Department. Of course, it all depends on a company's policy. Some businesses may have paid 9 Lottery results Friday, Sept.

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